Served with love

Kelyachi Bhaji/ Ripe Banana Fritters

2012-01-20T17:13:00.002+02:00

Many months ago, when I was shopping at my favourite wet market in Singapore, I ran into one of my parents' long lost family friend. And so, in the middle of the market ensued a one-sided conversation that went more or less on the following lines - oh you've grown up so much, never thought I would meet you in Singapore, how are mama and papa, oh I can't believe that you now have a daughter of your own.......if you've ever met someone who hasn't seen you in like 20 years (which was the case with this aunty - my parents and she had lost touch with each other after she moved cities), you would have a fair bit of idea about how the conversation was going!

Aunty, obviously, had not had enough of catching up and invited me home. I had a very faint recollection of her being a fabulous cook and so, was in fact secretly glad that she had invited me over.

It was a lovely evening - there is something very entertaining in listening to the older generation reminisce about the days gone by, especially when such conversations are accompanied by delicious food and a steaming hot cup of tea. That evening, in addition to batata vada and khandvi, Aunty had made some delicious ripe banana pakoras. The taste was very familiar; my mom used to make something similar.

"These are delicious," I told her. "Mama used to make something similar."

"Not similar....your mom used to prepare exactly the same bhajis. In fact, I learnt it from her. I knew you liked these. Actually you know, when you were a child......" and she went on to recount some embarrassing account from my childhood as I continued to nibble, red-faced, on the delicious banana bhajis.

In my pursuit of making newer things like banana bread, I had forgotten about these bhajis. But I remember my mom making these ~~whenever~~ if ever we had over-ripe bananas lying around at home. These bhajis are the easiest and quickest way of using them ripe bananas.

Kelyachi bhaji/ Ripe Banana Fritters

Ingredients:

Mashed over-ripe bananas: 1/3 cup
Whole wheat flour (atta)*: 2 tbsps - 3 tbsps
Jaggery: 2 tsps, grated
Cinnamon powder: 1/2 tsp OR cardamom powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: a pinch
Oil for deep frying

* if you are using whole wheat pastry flour, grind it in your spice grinder to get a finer texture.

Method:

Add the jaggery, cinnamon powder and salt to the mashed bananas and mix well. Then add the flour, one tbsp at a time till your get a batter of dropping consistency.

Heat oil in a deep wok. When the oil is sufficiently hot, drop the heat to medium. Add a teaspoonful of batter and fry till the bhajis are evenly brown.

If you, like me, are averse to deep frying, you could also make these in a paniyaram pan.

Make the batter as above. Add a few drops of oil in each hole of the pan. When hot, fill with the batter.

Drizzle a few drops of oil around the sides, cover and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Using a chopstick, flip the bhajis and cook for another 3 minutes or until evenly brown.

Serve hot with a cup of steaming hot tea. Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Whipped Cream Cake

2011-11-27T17:47:00.001+02:00

I was once conned into eating what I now know as the 'Whipped Cream Cake' by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

You see, there was this time a few years ago when I decided to go on a diet - nothing too drastic, all I was trying to do was stay away from desserts.

"Come off your diet nonsense and have a small slice," my friend ordered at a coffee morning she was hosting. The cake looked very moist and had a tender crumb and my no dessert resolve was getting a little weak. "Oh and by the way, it doesn't have any oil or butter," she added. That clinched it. I happily dug into the cake.

"How did you manage such a moist cake without using any oil or butter?" I asked her, my curiosity thoroughly piqued.

"Oh, sweetie, but this cake uses fresh cream. 40% fat," she said very nonchalantly.

I could have strangled her, but settled for the recipe instead. Months passed and I eventually forgot about the cake till recently when I started seeing this cake all over my FB wall.

High time I made it myself, I thought. So, I pulled out the recipe and set to work.

But how does the 'lemon poppy seed' part come into the picture, you might wonder. It might sound a little silly but after having lived the past almost 9 years in countries that have banned poppy seeds, I had made up my mind that whenever I moved to a country where poppy seeds where sold in grocery stores, the first cake I would bake would have poppy seeds in it. (In fact, a packet of poppy seeds was one of the first things I purchased when we moved to Johannesburg).

So that is how the Lemon Poppy Seed Whipped Cream Cake happened.

Lemon Poppy Seed Whipped Cream Cake

Ingredients:

Heavy Cream : 1 ½ cups

(Rose recommends 40% fat for a more tender crumb, this cream is not readily available off supermarket shelves and needs to be procured from speciality stores/restaurants or bakeries; mine had 34%)

Eggs: 3 (150 gms)
Superfine sugar: 1 cup + 2 tbsps
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

Cake flour: 2 ¼ cups (or 2 cups All purpose flour)
Baking powder: 2 tsps
Salt: ¾ tsp
Poppy seeds: 2 tbsps
Lemon zest: 1 tbsp

Oil: 1 1/2 tbsp, optional (I used oil to compensate for the lower fat % in the cream )
Lemon juice: 2 tsps

Method:

Pre-heat the oven at 375 deg F or 190 deg C ( 350 deg F or 150 deg C if using a dark pan) for 20 minutes.

Grease and dust a 10 cup metal fluted pan (I don't have one and used a bundt pan instead).

Whisk together the eggs and the vanilla essence until combined. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the poppy seeds and the lemon zest into the sifted flour, set aside.

Whip the cream till it thickens and forms stiff peaks.
With the beaters still running, pour the eggs mixture into the cream. The mixture will emulsify into a mayonnaise like consistency.

Next, beat the sugar into the mixture.

Fold the flour in 2 batches. Mix well until no streaks of flour are visible.

Finally, mix the oil and the lemon juice.

Bake for about 25-30 or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (It took me about 40 minutes to bake the cake, but that could well be my oven).

For the lemon glaze:

Icing sugar: 1 ¼ cup
Lemon juice: 2 tbsps
Water: ½ tbsp

Mix together the icing sugar, lemon juice and water till smooth. Pour it over the cooled cake and let it rest until it sets, about 10 minutes.

Soft and moist, a slight crunch from the poppy seeds and a delicate lemony fragrance and taste, this is the perfect slice to have with your evening cup of tea. Enjoy!

Announcing Back to Basics: Basic Desserts

2011-11-21T21:53:00.000+02:00

In my last post, I mentioned how blogging had made me stretch my boundaries in the kitchen and pushed me into making things that I would otherwise never have attempted before.

While that statement would largely refer to things such as baking bread, making the baklava, or kouign-amann, one of the things that blogging has made me do is revisit the simple, easy things that I had hitherto not ever made at home. Things I always went into a grocery store and purchased. Things as easy as spice blends, butter and cheese, jams and sauces. I have now realised that making my own pantry staples is not just healthier but a lot cheaper too.

Back to Basics, started by Desi Soccer Mom, is an event that celebrates these very simple and basic cooking techniques. In its new form, the event now looks at a distinct theme every month.

Now, I've had these moments, I am sure you've had them too. That moment when you feel like having something sweet - mind you, it is not a craving for a dessert. Just that sweet something which would make your meal that much more satisfying. Sometimes, I simply mix in some jaggery with a bit of ghee and eat it with a roti. Sometimes, I reach out for a bottle of strawberry preserve and smear it over a slice of bread.

So, this month, let's look at quick and easy to make jams, jellies and preserves. That something which you can make and keep in your pantry and then eat when the craving strikes.

Here's what you need to do:

Post your recipe of an easy to make jam or jelly or preserve, then link it post to this post and to the Back to Basics event page.

Older posts qualify as long as they are linked to this event announcement and Jaya's event page.

If you don't have a blog, just email me your recipe for a favourite jam, jelly or preserve and I will include it in the round-up.

Send me your entries mentioning Back to Basics : Basic Sweets in the subject line on aquadaze(AT)rediffmail(DOT)com

Last date for sending your entries is December 20, 2011. I will post the round up in the first week of January.

Kouign - Amann

2011-11-16T22:37:00.004+02:00

Imagine this: a freshly baked loaf of bread. Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Inhale the aroma. Hmmm.....wonderful, isn't it? To my mind, there is no other culinary aroma quite as enticing as the aroma of a freshly baked loaf of bread.

Now, slather some butter on a slice. Oh, and sprinkle some sugar on it. Eat. There is nothing quite as satisfying as a slice of bread with some butter and sugar.

Or is there?

Meet the Kouign- Amann.

The what? Yes, I hear you, for I had pretty much the same reaction when I first heard about the Kouign - Amann.

“There is a new bakery close to you house,” my daughter’s paediatrician excitedly informed me during one of our visits to her clinic, “and they sell the Kouign - Amann.”

“The what?” I asked her.

“Kweeneen Ahmann. It is a French bread. Lots of butter. Lots of sugar. Sinfully good. You'll love it!,” she told me, writing down the name of the said bakery and the bread.

Back home, I was googling away ‘Kouign Amann’ on the net.

Kouign-amann is a Breton cake. It is a round crusty cake, made with a dough akin to bread dough with sugar sprinkled between layers. The resulting cake is slowly baked until the butter puffs up the dough (resulting in the layered aspect of it) and the sugar caramelizes. The name derives from the Breton words for cake ("kouign") and butter ("amann"). Kouign-amann is a speciality of the town Douarnenez in Finistere, in the west of France, where it originated in 1865. (source: wikipedia)

The inimitable David Lebovitz has a recipe for Kouign Amann; why buy what you can make at home? So I rolled up my sleeves and got my fingers deep into the dough.

The first time, I followed his recipe to the letter. The second time, I used cinnamon sugar instead of caster sugar, which makes it a not so authentic Kouign Amann, but believe me when I say it, Kouign - Amann with cinnamon tastes heavenly, especially when had with a cup of strong, unsweetened black coffee.

The pictures, however, are from the first time and so you don’t see any cinnamon sugar in the pictures.

Ingredients:

Dried Yeast: 1 tbsp

Warm water: ¾ cup (I needed about a couple of tablespoons more)

All purpose flour: 2 cups

Sugar: 1 cup +1/3 cup

(to make cinnamon sugar, add 3 tbsp of powdered cinnamon to 1 cup of sugar)

SALTED Butter: 125 gms + 3 tbsps melted butter

Sea salt: 1/2 tsp

Method:

Cut the butter into cubes and let it chill.

Dissolve the yeast in a couple of tbsps of water with a tsp of sugar. Set aside till the yeast is foamy.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture and mix it into the flour.

Add the remaining water in a thin stream till the flour comes together into a soft but not sticky dough. (If the dough feels too sticky, add some flour, a tbsp at a time. If too hard, add water, again a tbsp at a time. The second time, I needed to add some water).

Transfer the dough on a lightly dusted countertop and knead the dough till it feels soft and elastic and doesn't cling to your fingers or stick to the countertop.

Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover and let it rest for about an hour.

Lightly dust the countertop with some flour and roll the dough into a rectangle 12”x18” (the 12” side should be on your left and right, the top and bottom of the rectangle should be about 18” - mine was not as big, though I didn't measure the exact dimensions).

Place the butter cubes in the centre of the dough and sprinkle ¼ cup of the cinnamon sugar over the butter. Fold the left side of the dough over the centre of the dough, do so with the right end of the dough as well.

Now sprinkle ¼ cup of cinnamon sugar over the length of the folded dough and fold the dough once again into three.

Wrap the dough into a plastic wrap and chill for an hour. (I chilled mine for over 2 hours).

Wipe the counter top clean and then sprinkle it with 1/3 cup of PLAIN caster sugar. Slide the chilled dough on the sugar covered countertop and press ¼ cup cinnamon sugar into the top of the dough.

(drowned in sugar, my entry to Susan's Black and White Wednesday)

Roll the dough into a rectangle once again (of similar dimensions as before). I found the dough more difficult to work with at this stage and so I rolled it for a bit and then finally stretched it with my hands.

Fold it into thirds, wrap it in a cling wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for about an hour.

(the first time, I made three small loaves. If you wish to do the same, divide the dough into 3 at this stage).

Pre-heat the oven to 425 deg F or 220 deg C (I thought 200 deg C worked better, I thought my cakes were a bit dry when I baked them at 220 deg C) and butter a 9” pie plate.

Open the cling wrap and shape the chilled dough into a disc to fit your pie plate. Lift the cling wrap and invert it over the pie plate. Sprinkle the last ¼ cup of cinnamon sugar over the top and drizzle with 1 tbsp melted butter.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until the top is caramelised. Let it rest for a couple of minutes, slide onto a wire rack and cool for about 10-15 minute.

Taste it. Melted butter oozing out and mingling with caramelised sugar…..oh, utter bliss. The Kouign-Amann has been Yeastspotted, hosted by Hefe and Mehr.

It is customary to post something sweet, something decadent especially when marking blog anniversaries. This Kouign- amann celebrates my third blog anniversary. It is a very special recipe to me, because had it not been for blogging, I would never have attempted making something that isn’t pronounced the way it is written! Blogging has made me stretch my own limits in the kitchen and how!

I know I am not as regular as I’d like to be in posting recipes or in responding to comments, but I want to thank each and everyone of you for visiting my blog over the last three years, leaving me your comments and trying out my recipes.

Indian Omelet

2011-10-21T23:11:00.000+02:00

One of the best feedback I have ever received about myself was from a colleague who I have since lost touch with and who I have never been able to thank.

“If you don’t mind, I want to tell you something,” he told me, just as he was on his way out of the office on his last day at work.

“Sure,” I told him. He worked in another department and I hadn’t interacted too much with him, so I really didn’t know what to expect.

“You cannot take compliments,” he told me flatly. “I have been observing this for almost a year now. Every single time, someone compliments you, you make excuses for yourself. You may not realise it, but it is rather putting off, you know. Anyway, you take care,” he said, hurrying out of the door before I could even recover from what he had said and thank him.

Later that evening, I was at a small get together at a friend’s house. Lots of booze, different varieties of chips and enough packets of cigarettes – we were all set to have a great evening. The music blared and the conversation flowed.

However, my mind was far away, brooding over what the colleague had said. Was that really true? Did I really have this habit of brushing off compliments? How long had been doing this, putting off friends and well wishers in the process, without even being aware of it? And how was I going to learn to accept compliments 'gracefully'?

Late into the night - it was almost dawn, actually - we all wanted something more substantial than chips to eat. A quick search of the fridge revealed lots of eggs, some chillies and some wilted coriander leaves and I offered to make some omelets for everyone.

His mouth stuffed with a huge bite of omelet and bread, a friend declared that this was the best omelet he had ever eaten. I started to say that it was not him, but the alcohol talking (which, in all probability, was the case). I almost said that there was no big deal in making omelets, that anyone could make great omelets (which is very much the case). But I stopped myself and just mumbled a “thank you."

It wasn't difficult after all. I was learning, trying and starting to accept compliments gracefully.

Indian Omelet

This Indian version of the omelet almost makes eggs sexy! A generous dose of chillies, ginger and coriander leaves makes the eggs aromatic, and the onion adds a bit of sweetness and crunch.

Ingredients:

Eggs: 2

Onions: 1/2 small, or about 3 tbsps chopped

Chillies: 3-4, or as per your personal spice preference

Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Ginger: 1/3 tsp, chopped

Turmeric: 1/4 tsp

Milk: 1 tbsp

Salt, to taste

Butter or oil: 1 tbsp (I prefer butter as it browns the underside of the egg easily and quickly)

Method:

Whisk together the eggs and milk till the mixture almost doubles in volume.

(If you have the time, separate the whites, whisk them till frothy and doubled in volume. Mix together the yolks and milk and whisk together till smooth and then add it to the whites, whisk again for 2-3 mins. I almost never do this but it does make a very fluffy omelet).

Throw in the chopped onions, chillies, coriander leaves, ginger together into a bowl. Add the salt and turmeric powder and mix together with your fingers till the onions and the herbs start to release their juices. Add it to the beaten eggs.

In a non-stick frying pan, add the butter and once melted, spread it evenly all over the pan. Then pour the egg mixture into the pan. In about a minute, the eggs will start setting around the edges of the pan. Once that happens, turn down the heat to the lowest setting and cover the pan with a lid and cook the eggs for another 2-3 minutes or until they are completely set on the top.

(If you don't like to brown your eggs on the underside, cover the pan for about 2 minutes. Then flip the omelet over and cook uncovered for 1 minute).

When you make an Indian omelet, it is absolutely imperative to serve it with some tomato ketchup on the side. Everything else - grilled tomatoes, hash browns, even bread - is optional!

A few months ago, a Twitter conversation between @indianfoodrocks, @desisoccermom and @Soma_R about Indian Omelets led to posts on their respective blogs on how they make Indian Omelets. I am horribly late in posting mine, but I finally managed it. Here are the links to the other Indian Omelet posts:

Manisha’s Omelet

Soma's Omelet

Omelet from Shulie’s Kitchen

Jaya’s Omelet

Sandeepa’s Omelet

Semiya Payasam

2011-10-07T08:57:00.001+02:00

Growing up, I used to call semiya (or vermicelli, as it is known in English) 'worms'. Take a look at the picture - the semiya strands do look like (dried) worms, don't they?

So, much to my mom's dismay, I would never touch anything made of semiya. It was only when I was well into my teens and was forced to have it, out of courtesy, at a friend's place that I grew out of my rather brattish attitude to semiya.

Today, of all the payasams that I make - coconut milk payasam, rice payasam - semiya payasam reigns as my favourite. A lot of it is, I think, to do with how easy and quick this payasam is to prepare. Toss the semiya in some ghee, simmer it milk, sweeten it, simmer some more and it is ready - in almost under 30 minutes.

It is no wonder then that semiya paysam features so often on my menu, especially on festive days.

Semiya Payasam

Ingredients:

Semiya/Vermicelli: 3/4 cup
Low Fat Milk: 2 cups
Low Fat Evaporated Milk: 1 tin/ 380 ml
Sugar: 1/2 cup (this amount works for us, adjust as per your taste buds)
Cardamom: 10 pods, crushed into a coarse powder
Assorted nuts (I use 1 tbsp each of almonds, cashewnuts and pistachios)
Ghee: 2 tbsps

Method:

Heat ghee in a wok and roast the vermicelli till it starts to change colour from translucent to white and brown. Keep tossing the vermicelli continuously around the wok, else it will burn.

Transfer the vermicelli into a colander and rinse it in warm water. This step is optional, but doing this will wash the ghee away and therefore, you won't have any ghee floating on top of the payasam.

In a deep, thick bottomed pan, mix together low fat milk and the evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Add the vermicelli to the milk. The uncooked vermicelli will sink to the bottom of the pan and so, give it a good stir occasionally till the vermicelli softens and cooks. Once cooked, the vermicelli will plump up.

After the vermicelli cooks, add sugar, chopped nuts and the cardamom powder and let the payasam simmer on low heat for about 15-20 minutes.

Garnish with chopped pistachios and serve hot. I personally prefer to let the payasam rest for at least a couple of hours in order to let the flavours mingle.

Of Chalks and Chopsticks: September was being hosted here; unfortunately, I haven't had any time to work on my story. So, for very selfish reasons, I am going to extend the deadline to October 31st. If you, like me, haven't worked on yours yet, do it now!

Black and White Wednesday: Scattered

2011-09-28T07:19:00.000+02:00

The picture above was not meant to look the way it does. I put the semiya (vermicelli) into a paper bag, planning to click a pile of vermicelli in a bag. But before I could click, the bag toppled over scattering the semiya on the board. Too lazy to put it back into the bag, I took pictures of the scattered semiya instead.

This picture is off to Susan's brilliant culinary photo event, Black and White Wednesday.

Gajar Halwa/ Indian Carrot Pudding

2011-09-26T20:56:00.002+02:00

Pick any Bollywood movie of the 70s or 8os and in all probability, the script would have a long-suffering mother who has battled poverty and other evils and injustices to raise a son on whom she has pinned all her hopes. And whenever that prodigal/recalcitrant/obedient/law-abiding (choose any one – just take your pick) but dutiful and mother-worshipping (absolutely necessary and essential qualities) would return from his studies in a boarding school/ a spell in the jail/ deputation at work (again, take your pick), this long-suffering and sometimes ailing mother would make some ‘halwa’ for her beloved son.

So what is 'halwa'? Halwa is originally an Arabic word meaning a sweet confection. Typically, it is made of either flour or nuts or fruits or even vegetables cooked in copious amounts of butter or ghee and sweetened with either sugar, jaggery or honey.

From Argentina to Ukraine, different countries have their own versions of halwa; in India, the more popular ones are sooji ka halwa (semolina halwa), moong dal halwa, atte ka halwa (whole wheat flour halwa), doodhi halwa (bottle gourd halwa) and gajar halwa (carrot halwa).

Coming back to Bollywood movies and halwa, I don't recall any movie ever mentioning what halwa the mother cooked for her son but I had this firm belief that the said halwa was none other than gajar ka halwa.

Probably because gajar ka halwa was, and still is, my favourite halwa.

You need all of 6 ingredients to make gajar ka halwa: carrots, milk, sugar, ghee, raisins and cardamom powder.

Oh and I forgot to mention - you also need plenty of elbow grease. After all, the carrots need to be grated. Well, yes. You need grated carrots. No, there are no short-cuts(unless you have a food processor, of course).

Gajar Halwa/ Indian Style Carrot Pudding

Ingredients:

Grated carrots: 4 cups
Low fat evaporated milk: 2 cups
Fresh milk: ½ cup
Sugar: ½ cup (adjust the quantity as per your taste and the sweetness of the carrots. Normally, this amount works for us)
Raisins: 1 tbsp
Cardamom pods: 10, powdered
Ghee: 1/3 cup

Method:

Melt 2 tbsps of the ghee in a wok. Add in the carrots and sauté in the ghee till they start to change colour. Then, pour in the milk (both evaporated and fresh milk) and simmer the carrots in the milk, stirring occasionally, till the milk almost (but not completely) evaporates.

Add the sugar, cardamom powder and the raisins and stir constantly (at this stage, you need to continuously stir the halwa, else it will stick to the bottom of the pan) till all the liquid dries up and the halwa starts to come off the sides of the pan. Taste and adjust the sweetness as per your palate preference.

Finally, add the remaining ghee and stir briskly for a minute.

Garnish with slivered almonds or pistachios.

Most people like to have gajar ka halwa hot, but I love to have it chilled. Have it any which way you please, but remember, thinking of diets when digging into the halwa is absolutely forbidden!

Sending this to Raks who is hosting Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets: Sweets/Desserts with Fruits and Vegetables

Tikshe Amshe (Spicy and Sour Curry)

2011-09-21T18:30:00.000+02:00

Having moved out of Singapore, one of the things I miss most about the city is the wet market that I used to frequent - the Tekka Wet Market in Little India. Bursting with fruits, vegetables, herbs, meat and fish of almost every kind, a visit to the market would leave me feeling envigorated and energised.

To me, the appeal of the market lay more in the experience - elbowing my way through the crowds, watching my step on the wet floor, chatting with the vendors, haggling on the price - just for the sake of it, sometimes sampling the fare....the entire experience of shopping there was magical!
Come to think of it, the sights and sounds of a bustling market can never be matched by the quiet and sometimes, antiseptic aisles in a supermarket.

fish heads*

Of course, the fact that I could find many things in the market that the more popular supermarkets didn't sell made the trip to the wet market even more worthwhile! One of the things that I would buy exclusively from Tekka was fish. Not only was it fresher and cheaper, the variety was mind boggling. And once I discovered Tikshe Amshe on Manisha's blog, my trips to the market became even more frequent. For, that was the only place where I could find the tongue - tickling mackerel.

Tikshe Amshe ( recipe from Indian Food Rocks)

Ideally, make tikshe amshe with bangda or mackerel. If you don't get mackerel, substitute with any other (oily) fish of your choice. The last time I made this, I used kingklip which was very nice too.

If you don't eat fish but the gravy appeals to you, substitute with boiled eggs or baby potatoes. If using potatoes, boil them till they are cooked but firm. Peel and cut into two. Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes till they are browned and crisp on one side. I regularly make this gravy with potatoes for my husband who is allergic to fish. I will always remain biased to fish, but believe me, tikshe amshe with potatoes is very delicious too.

The colour of the gravy will depend on the variety of dried chillies you use. Byagdi mirchi gives the gravy that beautiful and inviting fiery red colour. I got the fiery red colour you see in the pictures the first couple of times I made tikshe amshe but lately, the colour isn't quite what I'd like it to be, all thanks to the dried red chillies I am stuck with at the moment.

Ingredients

Mackarel - 4 nos
Dried red chillies - 20-25
Tamarind - 1 small ball, about the size of a small lemon
Sichuan peppercorns - 10-12 nos (original recipe uses 6-8 nos of tirphal)
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Grated coconut, optional - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 2 large cloves
Ginger - 1/2" piece
Curry leaves - 5-6 nos
Coconut oil - 2 tsps (or use any other cooking oil of your choice)
Coriander - for garnishing
Salt to taste

Method:

Soak the chillies in warm water for about 30 minutes to soften their skin.
Soak the tamarind in warm water for about 15 minutes and extract the pulp. Use very little water when soaking the tamarind in order to get a thick pulp.

Marinate the fish with the turmeric powder and a pinch of salt.

Coarsely crush the sichuan pepper and then soak them in 1/4 cup of water for about 15minutes.

Drain the chillies (don't throw away the water) and grind them together with the tamarind pulp, garlic cloves, ginger and grated coconut to get a smooth paste. Avoid using too much water; normally, the moisture from the grated coconut and the tamarind pulp should be enough.

Heat a tsp of oil in a wok and toss the marinated fish for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

In the same wok, add another tsp of oil. When hot, add the curry leaves followed by the masala paste, salt and sichuan peppercorns alongwith the water they were soaking in. Also add the reserved water from the drained red chillies. Bring to a boil.

Add the fish and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until the fish is cooked.

Serve hot with steamed rice. This is a fiery and spicy gravy that is best washed down with some sol kadhi.

* Fish head curry is a very popular curry and is unique to Singapore. The origin of the dish is an ode to the multi cultural and multi ethnic country that Singapore is. Fish heads are not prized by Indians, but to the Chinese, they are a delicacy. An ingenuous cook made a South Indian style curry with the fish head and a culinary delicacy was created! The picture of the fish heads is my entry to Susan's culinary photo event, Black and White Wednesday.

Black and White Wednesday: Cheers

2011-09-07T09:52:00.000+02:00

Vodka with a splash of lime didn't appear in my last food fiction by accident. It is one of my favourite poison!

So tell me, what's yours?

This is off to Susan's Black and White Wednesday.

Of Chalks and Chopsticks: September

2011-09-05T11:19:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, such things also happen.

I had, in fact, written this post a week back and then, horror of horrors, managed to delete it instead of some emails in my inbox that I was clearing! Moral of the story: don't do too many things together, especially when in a hurry! If you clicked on that link and came to nothing, my apologies.

Talking of stories, I have the pleasure of hosting our food fiction event, 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks' for September.

If you have been following this event over the last few months, you would know that the previous three months have had a picture as a cue around which the story had to be based.

However, instead of a picture cue, I have a couple of written cues for all of you:

1. You have been invited for a dinner party by a person you barely know. Your host/hostess has a reputation for throwing some amazing parties and you are eagerly looking forward to the evening. You reach the given address but the house seems disturbingly quiet. With a lot of misgivings, you ring the doorbell..........

2. You are a tourist in another country and are on your way to your destination. However, somewhere on the road, you realise that you have lost your way. In the distance, you see a dim light illuminating a sign that says 'Tr vel rs Inn'. You have been on the road for a long time and are tired, sleepy and hungry with no way of finding the right direction to your destination. You, therefore, decide to follow the road and spend the night in the inn.............

So there....now all you have to do is spin a yarn - an original one - using EITHER one of the two cues. It could either be based on a real incident or could be something competely imaginary. Explore any genre: humour, romance, mystery, paranormal etc.

And while you are at it, do keep in mind a few simple guidelines:

1. The story you write has to have some food - it doesn't have to be a recipe.

2. There is no word limit on the story you write, but it has to be written in one single post.

3. You can, obviously, rewrite the cues the way you want in your story. It would be nice, though, if you could highlight the cue you are using.

4. Posts written for this event CAN be shared with other events.

Post your story between now and Oct. 5th, link it to this post and mail it to me at: aquadaze(at)rediffmail(dot)com with the following details:

1. Name and URL of your blog

2. Title and URL of your story

Lost Forever

2011-08-11T15:01:00.000+02:00

January 4, 2005

A new year, some new beginnings. I have never been one to maintain a diary, but I want to record this new journey that I am embarking on -- the highs, the lows, the ups, the downs.

Ravi and I got married today! The ceremony was beautiful. I didn’t want a ritualistic wedding, but mama was right. There is something magical about the saat pheras!

Everything went off without a hitch, though I must admit, I was very nervous. Mama’s forgetfulness is legendary, but this morning, she forgot that it was THE wedding day! The poor dear - she has been working so hard planning the wedding over the last couple of weeks (and I can say it here, she almost made a mess with some of the arrangements) that I suspect she ran out of steam on D-day.

It is going to be difficult for her to manage without me – we have always been together, especially since papa passed away. The good part is Ravi and I have found an apartment that is just a few kms from hers.
Gosh! Already the house I grew up in and spent 27 years no longer seems ‘mine’!

January 4, 2006

Can’t believe that it is a year since Ravi and I got married! I had so many plans for this diary, but I have not written anything beyond the wedding day log. Got to set that right so I don’t forget the small, precious moments Ravi and I spend together!

Today, we had a small party at home – just family – at which Ravi and I got absolutely drunk! Luckily, MIL was quite amused. “It happens,” she said.

One thing was quite strange though. Mama couldn’t recognize Ravi’s parents! I am getting just a little worried about her forgetfulness.

I wonder if Mama is getting too lonely. I haven’t been the most ideal of daughters either – I should visit her more often. But then, Ravi and I love being with each other.

I discussed it with the GP and he feels that a change should do her good. Maybe, I should ask her to come and stay with us for a few weeks? That should cheer her up.

April 29, 2006

Mama has been staying with us for about a month now, and her behavior is starting to puzzle me. She forgot it was my birthday today! I remember how she would plan my birthday celebrations weeks, even months in advance – almost to the point of embarrassing me, especially in my teenage years. I had the fanciest of cakes – all homemade, so beautiful that my friends would beg me not to cut them.

Today, Ravi had to remind her to wish me.

October 5, 2006

Diwali – my favourite festival! I am not really a jewellery person, but I can’t help stare at the lovely bracelet Ravi presented me with.

Mama has invited us for lunch tomorrow. I think I’ll wear my new tussar sari. She always shakes her head in dismay when she sees me clad in my trousers and jacket. “Tch, tch,” she says, “you look so lovely in traditional clothes. At least make an effort sometimes!”

I am quite unlike her when it comes to dressing and grooming. Always immaculately dressed, not a hair out of place, smelling of jasmine – that is my Mama!

October 7, 2006

I am starting to get very concerned about Mama. First the food…..it tasted horrible. I hate to say it, but it did. The potatoes were burnt and the dal was half-cooked. It was as if she had never cooked in her life before. In the middle of the meal, she remembered that she hadn’t made anything sweet and decided to quickly whip up some semiya payasam. She, however, couldn’t locate the vermicelli – which, incidentally, was right in front of her.

She seemed to be in her element as she fried the vermicelli in the ghee. “Keep an eye on it always,” she said. “You don’t want it to burn.” She poured in some milk and let it bubble away till it reduced to half but if I hadn’t stopped her in the nick of time, she would have added a cup of salt instead of sugar to sweeten the payasam.

The house was in a mess. There was a time when she was a compulsive cleaner, now bathrooms stank and there was a layer of grime on the washbasins.

I am scared. What if she is seriously depressed and does something to herself? We decided that I would stay with Mama for a few days. Ravi also said he would try and locate a good doctor who can help us find what is ailing mama.

Ravi is such a darling. I wonder what I would have done without him. And to think, there was a time when I was hesitating to accept his proposal. I had really made him wait and grovel! Must make up to him soon and I think I know exactly how!

November 17, 2006

A terrible day! Work was awful. To top it, Ravi and I ended up having a tiff. He wanted me to come back home but I wanted to spend a few days more with mama.

When I returned home to Mama’s, I found my chargers missing. I always leave them plugged in to the power points and yet, I couldn’t find them anywhere. When I asked Mama, she looked at me as if I were talking gibberish.

At that point, I just gave up on the day and decided to fix myself a small drink. Vodka with a slice of lime sounded just right. Opened the fridge to get a lemon and there they were, both my chargers, lying in the vegetable crisper. I was shocked. Had mama put them there?

pic credit : Desi Soccer Mom

I had just put the vegetable tray on the counter-top to retrieve my chargers when mama let out a scream. “Snakes, snakes,” she shouted, her eyes staring straight at the cables coiled around some sundry fruits and veggies.

Something is very wrong with mama. I am worried. Really worried.

March 20, 2007

I am in denial. I can’t come to terms with the diagnosis. I have had Mama checked up by numerous specialists and their verdict is unanimous - Alzheimer’s disease.
Oh God, why me? And why her?

February 12, 2008

A few days ago, mama wandered off alone at night. Luckily, a neighbor saw her and brought her back home. It is increasingly clear that she is not going to be able to live alone anymore. I don’t want to send her to a care facility. I can’t abandon her like that. We have decided that she will come and stay with us.

April 23, 2009

This diary has been witness to many a sad entries. It’s about time I shared some happy news. Ravi and I have just discovered we are having a baby! I am over the moon…can’t wait to hold her in my arms. I can’t wait for someone to call me ‘mama’.

My mama, in the meantime, has continued to deteriorate steadily. These days, she seems more and more disoriented. Some days, she seems a little in touch with reality and for those, I am grateful.

August 1, 2011

I watch with a mixture of pride and pity.

My little girl is growing up fast and becoming more and more independent. My heart swelled with happiness today as I watched her eat a few spoonfuls of the khichdi on her own. Hopefully, in a few days, she will be fully toilet trained.

Mama, on the other hand, struggles to eat. The food dribbles down from the sides of her mouth and onto her bib. I try to help her, but she pushes my hands away. She manages to put in few spoonfuls into her mouth but chokes over the khichdi that I have so carefully mashed. A faint odour of urine and disinfectant emanates from her body. The ailment has robbed her not just of her memory and identity, it has also stripped her of dignity.

I am reaching the end of my endurance. Watching my mother and my daughter together, one progressing, the other regressing, is taking an emotional toll on me.

August 10, 2011

We finally sent mama to a care facility today. It hasn’t been an easy decision. I was worried that mama would protest at being moved away from home. I had hoped that she would protest.

But as we neared the care facility, it became clear that mama had no sense of what was happening.
I could hardly keep my tears in check. As we walked her to the reception, I hung back. Suddenly, she turned around. My heart soared. Maybe, she will give me a hug, I thought.

“Are you looking for something?” she asked in a slow, halting voice.

“No,” I told her. Taking a deep breath, I walked next to her, not wanting to leave her side till she was settled in her room.

Yes, I wanted to tell her. I am looking for my mama. She is right here in front of me and yet I’ve lost her, forever.

*****************************************************************************************

This is my entry to 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks' that Jaya is hosting this month. The picture above is the visual cue she gave us.

Jaya, thank you very much for your feedback and your help in editing the story.

Some stories are easy to write, some others not aren't. This story made me step out of my comfort zone in more ways than one. Firstly, I chose to do the narrative in a diary entry style. Secondly, the story - line itself made me a little uncomfortable - writing in first person about a mother's ailment was very difficult. Finally, the subject - Alzheimer's disease - is not something I know too much about (or want to know too much about - if you know what I mean). Though I have tried to cross-check the stages and the symptoms of the progress of the disease, it is quite possible that some errors have crept in. I do hope you will ignore these.

Just one thing - if you have read so far, don't just be a silent reader! Leave me a comment. I don't ususally solicit comments on my blog, but this time, I would sincerely appreciate all feadback.

Black And White Wednesday: The Very Last Drop

2011-07-20T10:24:00.000+02:00

Susan, my daughter would like to thank you for starting Black and White Wednesday. Why? Well, a few days ago, I was taking pictures for this post. The daughter was sitting next to me, eating some ice cream. She then put the bowl to her mouth to lick the bowl clean. Quickly, I took a picture of her licking the bowl.

Then, as I was reviewing the picture, I realised that it would look much nicer if taken in B&W (yes, of course I had Black and White Wednesday on my mind). So, I called her and offered to scoop her some more ice cream. She was a little surprised as I never volunteer second helpings of ice cream unless she asks for it. But I had pictures to click!

So she had some more ice cream and I had my B & W picture!

Indian Espresso Coffee

2011-07-18T22:32:00.002+02:00

Once upon a time, there was a young woman….. .

It was the drum roll of thunder that made her put the book down and look outside the window. In the horizon, she could see dark clouds gathering. Rain looked imminent.

She picked up her coffee mug; there was about a quarter of a mug left, but it had gone absolutely cold. She hated drinking coffee that had gone cold.

S*#^, I’ll have to get up and make another one, she sighed.

It would be her third cup in almost two hours – she was getting addicted to drinking coffee – but then, she needed the coffee, especially when she had a book review deadline to meet. Some books went on and on and coffee helped her wade through the pages. A few months ago, it had been cigarettes.
Somewhere, she had read that drinking too much coffee wasn’t good for you and she had been drinking quite a few.

Any day better than smoking cigarettes, she told herself, as she spooned the coffee granules and the sugar into a mug and started beating them with a few drops of milk.

By the time she returned to her rocking chair with the coffee, the wind had picked up, bringing with it the earthy smell of wet mud. On the terrace below her apartment, she spotted Mrs. Joshi collect the papads she had left out in the sun. In the balcony opposite her window, she saw the maid hurriedly gather the clothes left to dry out on the clothes line. The people on the streets too were casting anxious glances toward the rapidly darkening sky and hurrying along.

This was the reason she loved reading by the window. The large French window not only let light in through the day and served as a work desk of sorts, it also afforded her a great view. The scenes of real life on the streets below and around her often offered a welcome respite from the monotony of reading printed words of different sizes.

Get on with the book, she commanded herself. Only 97 pages left, hopefully I should be through with it by 7.

Within minutes, it had started raining in sheets. The wind had changed direction and a fine mist of raindrops started coming in on her face through the open window. She hurriedly shut her book, put it on the window sill and placed her mug right on top of the book, and closed the window.

pic credit: BongMom's Cook Book

How can you treat your books so shabbily, as if they were coasters, he would have said. And what is with this closing of the window? A beautiful shower is meant to be enjoyed. Come lets go for a walk in the rain, he would have insisted.

Mohit. Much like a pebble stuck in the sole of a shoe that you want to but cannot get rid of, Mohit was ever present in her thoughts. She had walked out of his life almost a year ago, but every single time she did or didn’t do something, she was keenly conscious of what he would have said or done.

Please God, make him call me, she would pray. Many a times, she wondered if she should swallow her pride and ego and write to him instead. But she every time she started to write to him, his words came back to her.

Just get the f*#% out of my life. I don’t want to see you again, he had said.

Her mailbox was brimming with mails written to him but never sent; she had decided that she wasn't going to be the one to take the first step.

Call me Mohit, call me. I will come back to you in a heartbeat. Just call me once, she pleaded fervently, opening the window and letting the mist of raindrops wet her face.

………and a young man……..

Thousands of miles away and in the land of the Big Apple, Mohit woke up with a start. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t really there with him and that he had dreamt of her, again. He saw her very often in his dreams but this dream seemed so real that he felt as if she was there, right next to him.

After tossing and turning on the bed for a while, he realized that there was no point in trying to sleep again. He lit a cigarette and walked into the kitchen, mixed the coffee granules, sugar and milk together in a mug and blitzed it in the microwave. Even as he did so, he could feel her shake her head in disapproval.

Tch, tch, tch....That is no way to make coffee.. You need to beat it and beat it well. Bring out its flavor.

He could picture her even now, her night suit clinging to her body, her hair short, tousled hair and the complete concentration on her face as she beat the coffee. She was passionate about her ‘one cuppa a day’ and was very particular about how it was made. When the milk came to a simmer, she would add a couple of crushed cardamoms to it and then pour it on the beaten coffee.

Smell it first, she would command. Take in the aroma. Then sip it. Nice, isn’t it? Now that is the way to make and drink coffee.

The microwave’s loud beeps pulled him out of his reverie. As he sipped the tasteless coffee, he wished, once again, that he had never uttered those words. Or at least apologized soon after. Or begged her to come back. But he had done nothing of the sort, forever and, a little arrogantly, hoping that she would call him. She hadn’t and he couldn’t fault her for it.

Like many times before, he contemplated giving her a call. It was a number that was etched on his mind and he punched in each digit with deliberation, but paused before he hit the dial key.

What if she doesn’t take my call? What if she tells me to get lost? What if, horror of horrors, she has found someone else?

And so he went cancel,cancel, cancel on the phone till he had erased each digit of her number.

I am waiting for you to call me, he said,staring into empty space. Call me once and I will be there with you in a jiffy.

…..They were both in love with each other and yet, neither wanted take the first step towards reconciliation. And so, they carried on with their lives hoping and praying that the other one would call. Like they say, sometimes love is just not enough.....

BongMom was hosting Of Chalks and Chopsticks for July, the picture above was the cue she gave us this month around which to spin a yarn.

The moment I saw her picture, I thought of the Pink Floyd song Echoes; this one line kept playing in mind over and over again - So I throw the windows wide and call to you across the sky. That then, has been the huge inspiration for this story.

*****************************************************************************************

Indian Espresso Coffee

I didn't even know it was called "Indian Espresso" until a few years ago. I had always known and called it "beaten coffee". And that's what you need to do to make a cuppa. Beat the coffee and sugar together till it is creamy and frothy.

Here's how you make beaten coffee a.k.a Indian Espresso:

Take a mug, add (instant) coffee granules and sugar to it - according to your personal preference, add a few drops of water/milk. The mixture should ressemble wet sand. Using a spoon or an electric beater, start beating the coffee and sugar. Add a few more drops of water if the mixture is too dry, but add the water only a few drops at a time.

It needs elbow grease.....after a few minutes of continuous beating, the coffee will look pale, thick and creamy, like so:

Pour steaming hot milk (I add a couple of crushed cardamoms to my coffee - but this is completely optional) till the mug is half full and stir well. Then pour the remaining milk. Refrain from stirring too much or it will lose the bubbly, frothy look.

Sip it slowly, savouring the aroma and the robust flavour of coffee. Enjoy!

MLLA - 36, the round-up and the winner

2011-07-07T22:17:00.002+02:00

I have always maintained that hosting an event is one of the best ways of discovering new blogs and bloggers from all corners of the world. And that is exactly why I have enjoyed hosting MLLA - 36. It has been a one month of not just coming across wonderful blogs but also learning newer, and in some cases, very innovative ways of cooking with legumes.

Congratulations Soujanya, for winning the Hurst Bean Box and Super Smoothies: 50 Recipes for Health and Energy by Sara Corpening Whiteford and Mary Corpening Barber (I used Random.org for drawing the winner). Susan will contact you soon for further details.

And now, the round-up of the entries for MLLA-36:

Six Shades of Red Soup from Janet of Taste Space

Chickpea Patties from Priya Sreeram of Bon Appetit

Sweet and Sour Beet and Sprouted Mung Salad from Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen

Mangode - Green Gram Fritters from Anamika of Taste Junction

Methi Daal - White Lentils with Fenugreek Leaves from Ambreen of Simply Sweet 'n Savoury

Baked or Griddled Falafel from Adam of Yogi Kitchen

Paruppu urundai kuzhambu(Lentil dumpling curry) and Arroz con frijoles negro(Black beans and rice) from Denny of Oh Taste N See

Butternut squash and Masoor Dhal Kootu from Prabha of For the Love of Cooking

Pop's Peppery Chilli from R & R of Tadka Pasta

Moong Dal Sheera/ Moong Dal Halwa and Fried and Munchable Moong Dal from Kalyani of Mom Chef

Lasooni Dal Palak from Anamika of Taste Junction

Spinach (Keerai) Vadai and Arachuvitta Sambhar from Vardhini of Vardhini's Kitchen

Sprouted Yellow Peas Sundal, Soya Gobi Manchurian and Red Chori Dumplings Gravy from Priya of Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes

Veggi Black Bean Patties from Anu Menon of Truth Personified

Vegetarian Chicken Salad by Kalinda of Wheat Free Meat Free

Egg Bajji from Sravani of Srav's Culinary Concepts

Eritrean Lentil Stew from Caffetiera of La Caffetiera Rosa

Baked Banana Blossom Fritters and Spinach Dhal from Krithi of Krithi's Kitchen

Lobia Curry - Black Eye Bean Curry from Jaya of Spice and Curry

Idli Karam Podi from Lubna of Yummy Food

Grilled Sprouts Sandwich from Raji of Vegetarian Tastebuds

Cucumber Fritters, Cucumber Dal, Roasted Chana Dal powder, and Vegan Black Bean Burger from Harini-Jaya of Tamalapaku

Bisibelebhath/ Spicy Rice and Lentil Stew from Champa of Versatile Kitchen

Vegan Grilled Bean Burger from Raven Chelanee of Cook. Eat. Delicious!

Chole Kulche Roll from Vaishali Sabnani of Ribbon's to Pasta's

Rasam - Hot and Sour Vegan Soup from Nashira of Palteful

Grilled Vegetable Lentil Soup and Lentil Mushroom Sliders from Claire of Chez Cayenne

Fenugreek Seeds in Spicy Tangy Tamarind Sauce and Janthikalu - Andhra Savoury Snack from Soujanya of Souji's Home

Chayote Chow Chow Moong Dal Curry from Divya of Exquisite Corner

Fish Stew from Akheela of Torviewtoronto

Quick Cooking Microwave Dhokla from Rajani of My Kitchen Trials

Mango Dal from Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary

Mushroom, Puy Lentil and Ale Pie and Leek and Puy Lentil Flan from Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen

Morel and Lentil Carbonara Pasta from Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook

Thalipeeth from Aqua of Served With Love

Thank you all for your entries! My Legume Love Affair enters its 4th year this month and aptly, Susan is hosting MLLA-37.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T09:47:00.000+02:00

Thalipeeth

2011-06-23T15:41:00.007+02:00

The kitchen was abuzz with activity. I looked on with amazement at the number of things ma was making for me. The puran polis were all done and packed into resealable bags. The cook was frying the chaklis while the maid was rolling the laddoos, even as ma fired instructions to both of them.

Papa kept coming into the kitchen every now and then, sometimes tasting the laddoos or nibbling on the chaklis. “Don’t we have any fruits? Where are the grapes?” he enquired. “Can’t you see the apples and bananas on the table? Look in the fridge, you’ll find some grapes, strawberries and oranges” ma replied sounding very irritated. “Take what you want and sit outside for some time; don’t keep coming in and out of the kitchen so often, it disturbs me no end.”

They seem to be arguing all the time, I thought to myself sadly. They used to be such a gentle couple, quite unlike the cantankerous pair I had seen over the last fortnight. I was really worried for them.

“Your papa,” ma whispered to me, “is losing it. Always interfering….just doesn’t what to do with himself. I just don’t know how to cope with him anymore!”

My heart went out to Papa. Recently retired, he wasn’t used to having time on his hands. He didn’t like watching T.V. and was never into reading. He tried his hand at gardening, but there wasn’t much he could do in the tiny one bedroom apartment with an almost non-existent balcony. So he would just potter around the house to while away the hours.

Ma turned her attention to the grains she planned to roast for making the thalipeeth bhajani. The sheer volume of bhajani that she was planning to pack horrified me. “Are you kidding ma? That bhajani will take up my entire baggage allowance! And can you just stop all this cooking? I don’t want you to tire yourself out.”

“Haven’t I told you so often, let me make all these things while I am physically able to. You have come home after 3 years, god knows when you will come again. Let me pamper you,” she smiled lovingly.
“Listen ma…..” but she cut off my protests with a curt “stop nagging me, go join your father outside.”

So I went and sat with papa who was solving a crossword puzzle, even as he was nibbling on some grapes. “Come beti, sit. Want a fruit? An orange? I’ll peel it for you.” He hadn’t forgotten that I hated peeling oranges.

“No, I’ll peel them myself,” I smiled. He went back to his crossword and as I watched him in amazement as he went from one clue to the next. He looked much healthier and more relaxed since his retirement but in the corners of his eyes, I could detect that vacant look of complete boredom and it troubled me a lot. Poor papa, he really needed to find himself something that would make him happy. I wished there was something I could do for him, but was at a complete loss of ideas.

“ ‘memories preserved, not pickled in jars but frozen forever’, now what kind of a clue is that?” he wondered aloud.

“Ummm..How about ‘photograph’?” I suggested

“8 letters….snapshot.”

“Hey papa, where are the albums? I want to see the old pictures.” But I knew where they would be, they had always been in the shelf in the showcase and I shot out of my chair and grabbed a few.

The albums were neatly labeled according to month, year and occasion – their marriage, their honeymoon, some vacations they had taken, my birth and so forth. Papa was a consummate photographer and for the first time, I realized how good he was. I never seemed to stand still in any pictures, but ma must have loved being his subject. The last of the albums had mostly blurry pictures – no, not taken by him but by a 14 year old me. But after my 15th year, there were no more pictures. I had taken the camera for a school picnic and dropped it, damaging it completely. The lie was easier, so I came back home and claimed that the camera was misplaced, possibly stolen by someone. Papa never replaced that camera, I had been too guilty to ask him to and that was the end of his hobby.

Feeling completely suffocated by the weight of my lie, I decided to step out for a bit. I must have gone out for a couple of hours and when I came back, ma was still in the kitchen, transferring some pickles into smaller bottles and papa was now attacking a Sudoku puzzle.

“Papa…for you,” I said, giving him the DSLR that I had purchased when I went out. “And maybe it is time for me to confess that your old camera wasn’t stolen. I….uh….I dropped it and it….it….broke.”

He nodded. “I’ve always suspected it. That is why this camera now, huh?” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

In no time, he had figured the camera out and was clicking away endlessly. Pictures of me, our apartment, his plants, of the streets that ran around our apartment, of the skyline…

“Click ma’s pictures,” I said.

“You crazy? She’ll bite my head off if I go in there to take pictures,” he laughed. “This fruit bowl here will make for a better subject!”

Ma, in the meantime, had finished her marathon cooking session and walked out at exactly the moment that papa clicked the strawberries.

“Look at him, taking pictures of everything in this house except mine.”

He winked at me and turned to pacify ma by taking her pictures. He said something, she laughed and after a long time, they looked like the couple they used to be.

It didn’t matter that I didn’t have the camera in my hand to capture that moment - I knew it was an image that would live forever in my heart.

So this is my (as always?) late entry to our food fiction event, Of Chalks and Chopsticks that Sra revived last month. This time, there was a cue - in the form of a photo - of a man taking a picture of a bowl of strawberries.

Bongmom is hosting Of Chalks and Chopsticks for July. Head on over to her blog to know more.

Thalipeeth is very popular snack all over Maharashtra . It is a multi-grain, multi-legume pancake made from a special flour called 'thalipeeth bhajani'. Most Maharashtrian households will have bhajani in their pantries at all times and with good reason - thalipeeth is very easy to make once you have the bhajani and it is one of the most nutritious things you can dish out in a hurry.

The bhajani recipe varies from family to family. The following recipe is just a guideline - feel free to vary the grains/legumes (and the quantities) as per availability.

Thalipeeth Bhajani

Ingredients:

Bajra/pearl millet – 1 cup
Jowar/ Sorghum – 1 cup
Rice – ¾ cup
Wheat - ½ cup
Chana dal/Bengal gram – ½ cup
Urad dal/ Black gram – ½ cup
Moong dal/ Green bean – ½ cup
Coriander seeds – ¼ cup
Cumin seeds – 1/8 cup
Dry red chillies – ¼ cup, or to taste

Dry roast all the ingredients separately. Allow to cool. Grind them all together to a fine flour.

(normally, the grain – pulses mixture is ground in a flour mill. However, my friend grinds them at home in a spice grinder. It is a time consuming process and if you choose to do the same, do sieve the bhajani a couple of times and grind the gritty pieces again).

If roasting -grinding is too cumbersome, you could also buy the flours separately (in the same ratio as that of the grains), lightly roast them and mix them together to make a hassle-free bhajani.

The bhajani can last for months; if the weather in your part of the world tends to be hot and humid, pack it in small quantities in re-sealable bags/air tight containers and store in the fridge.

Once you have the bhajani, you can whip up thalipeeth in a jiffy!

Thalipeeth

Ingredients:

Bhajani – 1 cup
Onion – 1 small, very finely minced
Coriander leaved – ¼ cup, finely chopped
Chillies – 4, chopped
Jaggery – 1.5 tsps, grated
Salt
Water for kneading the dough
Oil

Method:

Mix together the onions, coriander leaves, chillies, jiggery and salt till the onions start to release some water. Set aside for 5 minutes and mix again. This helps all the ingredients to release their flavours.

Then add the bhajani to the above mixture and mix it in, you should get a mixture that resembles wet sand.

Keep adding water to it till you get a soft ball of dough.

Oil and heat a frying pan – it should be hot enough so that when you sprinkle a few drops of water on it, they should sizzle.

Take a small ball of dough, roughly the size of a golf ball, and flatten it to get a circle about 5” in diameter (I normally do this on a parchment paper, my mom does it straight on the pan) and place it on the pan.

Make a small circle in the centre with the back of a spoon. Drizzle some oil around the edges and in the centre, cover with the lid and let it cook for about 2-3 mins or until the underside is brown.

Flip it over and cook till small, brown spots appear.

Thalipeeth has to be served hot off the pan - a cold thalipeeth is an absolute no-no - preferably with a blob of butter melting over it. I serve it with some spiced yogurt and a salad on the side for a light and healthy lunch/dinner.

I am hosting MLLA - 36 this month and the multi-grain, multi-legume thalipeeth is my entry to the event.

My legume Love Affair - 36

2011-06-02T08:40:00.005+02:00

In the food blogging world, there are some events that are iconic. Susan's brainchild, My Legume Love Affair (MLLA for short) is one such event.

MLLA has been around for over 3 years now (with bloggers lining up and then waiting impatiently for their turn to host the event) and it gives me immense pleasure to (finally!) host MLLA - 36.

To me, the best part about the event is in the simplicity of the idea - cooking with legumes - making it one of the easiest events to take part in.

Oh and there are some cool prizes to be won as well:

1) Super Smoothies: 50 Recipes for Health and Energy by Sara Corpening Whiteford and Mary Corpening Barber. This prize is offered by Susan without influence at her expense, and she will also absorb worldwide shipping charges. F.T.C. Notice: Susan does not receive any compensation from Amazon.

2) Hurst Bean Box - A case of six bags of the winner's choice of Hurst Bean products, suitable for every diet, sponsored by Hurst Bean. (Due to shipping restrictions, this prize can only be awarded if the winner is a U.S. resident.) F.T.C. Notice: In May 2010, Susan, at her request, received two Hurst Bean complimentary products which are not available for purchase in her local markets. Susan does not generally accept free products from Hurst Bean nor is she financially compensated by them.

3) Drawing Structure - If the winner is a U.S. resident, she/he will be the recipient of both Prizes 1 and 2 above. In the event that an international winner is drawn, a second drawing will be conducted from the U.S. pool of entrants to ensure that the Hurst Prize is awarded every month. In these instances, the international winner will receive the book, and the U.S. winner will receive the Hurst Prize.

So what do you need to do to win one of the prizes? Just blog a recipe about legumes. Simple, isn't it?

But hey, before you quickly hit the 'publish' button on your legume post, do take a look at the event guidelines:

1) Any cuisine, any culture, all courses (appetizers, main course, dessert), vegetarian, vegan or non-vegetarian - the choice is yours - are welcome as long as 'legumes' are the star, the main ingredient.
(Legumes essentially refer to and include fresh or dried pulses, beans, lentils, peas and/or the edible pods that contain these seeds. Derivative products such as besan or tofu also make the cut.
Yes, tamarind, fenugreek seeds, carob, peanuts do form part of the legume family. However, if your recipe contains these or for that matter, any other legume in small quantities, like say a spoonful, or as a garnish, or as an auxillary or an optional ingredient, your entry will NOT qualify for the event).

2) Multiple entries are permitted, but restricted to a maximum of 10 per participant. Please note that for the random drawing, only ONE entry will be considered.

3) Archived entries are welcome, but have to be updated and reposted as current.

4) Recipes submitted to MLLA - 36 can be shared with other events.

5) Don't have a blog, but have an awesome recipe to share? Sure, send it in!

6) The use of the MLLA - 36 logo is optional.

Link your entry to Susan's host line-up page and this announcement and email it to me: aquadaze{at}rediffmail{dot}com with the following details:

Your name
Blog name and blog URL
Post title and post URL
Your location (essential for the prizes, but will not be published)
(do not attach any photos with your mail as the round-up will not include photos)

I will acknowledge all your entries via e-mail; if you do not receive a reply from me within 5 days of mailing me, do leave a comment on this post.

The last date for sending your entries is June 30th and the round-up will be posted in the first week of July.

So go ahead and hit the publish button on your legume posts!

Batatyacha Kees (Spicy Grated Potatoes)

2011-05-08T12:48:00.007+02:00

There was a point in time when I thought she was the villain in my life. There was a point in time when I was convinced she was my worst enemy.

She had problems with my sense of style, she had reservations about my choice of clothes.
That dress? The one with the sequins? Are you serious?
The bright red shade of nail polish? Too flashy for your age.
I called her old-fashioned. After all at 15, I was convinced I had a better idea of fashion and style than her. Once I was financially independent, I would buy what I wanted, I decided.

She curbed my freedom, she doubted my ability to take care of myself.
All girls weekend out to celebrate the class 12 results? No way!
Discotheque? And in those clothes? Perish the thought.
Wait till I am 18 and old enough to move out of the house, I thought. I would do as I pleased!

She was extremely strict with my interactions with anyone other than family, she was always mistrustful of people I thought were perfectly nice.
Sleep on the terrace during summer holidays with a group of friends? Never.
Go to the 27 year old neighbour's (uncle's) house who lived alone and chat while she fetched my sister from school? Don't you dare.
I used to get confused by her behaviour sometimes. At times, I used to pity and get angry at her suspicious nature. I would not grow up and be like her, I swore.

It took me some years to finally realise that she was right about most things that she let or did not let me do, that whether she was right or wrong, she did have her valid reasons for the decisions she made. It has taken me longer to actually admit that as a teenager, I made life very difficult for her.

Today, I know that my mother is someone who became the villain in my life so that she could keep me safe always. She was that enemy who was driven by only one motive - my well-being.

My mom's cooking is sometimes counter - intuitive , but always simple. Not too many frills and absolutely fuss-free. She never made any attempts to teach me cooking believing that cooking was something that would come naturally to me whenever I had to handle my own kitchen. There is no need to learn cooking, she would say. Focus on your studies instead.

I, on the other hand, would pester her with my food demands and help her when she asked me to only after whining and registering my displeasure. You always disturb me just when the novel's reached an interesting juncture, I would complain.

Ironically, today, whenever I go home, I want to help her out in the kitchen and she pushes me out. Don't tire yourself, I tell her. It is my right to pamper you, she counters.

Batatyacha kees is something that is normally made for upvas (religious fast) but growing, this was one of my favourite food and would get made for breakfast or with tea in the late afternoons.

Think of it as an Indian version of hash browns - just a little more nutritious with the addition of nuts and definitely tastier than hash browns!

Ingredients:

Potatoes: 2 medium
Sweet potato*: 1 medium
Roasted peanuts: 1/2 cup
Fresh chillies**: 2-3, more or less depending on your personal spice preference
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Juice of half a lemon
Oil or ghee: 1.5 tbsp

(*normally, batatyacha kees is made with only potatoes, but my mom also uses sweet potatoes because they are very nutritious and for the delicate sweet flavour they impart.
**I use red and green chillies only to make the kees look colourful)

Method:

Wash the potatoes thoroughly, grate them (I normally grate them with the skin, you could peel them if you so desire) and soak them in water.

After about 5 minutes, discard the water and soak the potatoes in a fresh change of water for another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, pound or grind the peanuts into a coarse powder.
(If you want to know how to roast and crush peanuts, hop on over to Nupur's blog One Hot Stove for a very comprehensive post on roasting and grinding peanuts).

Drain the water the potatoes were soaking in. Squeeze out the water completely by pressing small batches of the drained potatoes between your palms.

Melt the ghee in a wok. When hot, add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start to splutter, toss in the chillies.

Then add the grated potatoes, turn up the heat and stir fry till the potatoes are cooked. Finally add the crushed peanuts and stir for a further 2 minutes. Squeeze the juice of half a lime and serve hot.

Of Chalks and Chopsticks

2011-05-05T16:59:00.003+02:00

To tell you the truth, I have never received as many e-mails from my blog readers for my recipes as I have for our food fiction event Of Chalks and Chopsticks. I was surprised and delighted to know that even non - bloggers enjoyed reading all the food fiction that we had been churning.

Then a few days ago, there was a mail from Sra proposing that we revive the event. With a few inputs coming in from Desi Soccer Mom and Bong Mom, Of Chalks and Chopsticks is now back, with a bit of a twist.

Hop over to Sra's blog to find out more and then start spinning your yarns!

(I have disabled the comments on this post, please post all comments and queries on Sra's blog)

Chocolate Layer Cake

2011-04-30T17:30:00.010+02:00

Well, hello there! I know, I know, I have been missing from the blogging world for quite a while. You are right, forget updating my own blog, it has been a while since I visited any of yours. What can I say, except that life suddenly got very busy (doesn't it always, just when you think you are on a cruise mode?) leaving me with very little time for blogging.

Much as it has been a busy time this past month - and it will continue to be so over the next couple of months - I have been baking a lot, in fact, more than I normally do over the last month.

Baking gives me a lot of comfort, it is my way of unwinding. Baking de-stresses me like nothing else can. At the end of a long tiring day, all I want to do is not rest, but head to the kitchen at night and bake. I love to bake late at night, when I can be in the kitchen absolutely undisturbed - no telephone calls to be answered, no doors to be opened, no husband or child to attend to.

Gathering the ingredients, mixing them into a batter, waiting for the oven to do its magic, basking in the aromas enveloping the house and pulling out a perfectly baked cake from the oven - sometimes, I bake more for the love of the process than to actually eat cake!

This is one of my favourite layer cakes. Not only does it taste divine, it is also one of the easiest layer cakes I have ever made.
The recipe for this cake comes from Simply Recipes, I have only reduced the quantity to make 2 cakes instead of the 3 that Elise's original recipe makes.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 2 cups
Salt: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Cocoa: 3/4 cup

Sugar: 1& 3/4 cup

Water: 2/3cup + 4tsps
Oil: 2/3 cup + 4tsps

Eggs: 4, small

Water: 1/2 cup
Vanilla or Coffee essence: 1 tsp

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg F or 180 deg C.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Whisk in the sugar as well.
To this, add the water and oil and mix till just combined.
Add the eggs to the above mixture and beat for a minute.
Finally, add the 1/2 cup of water and the vanilla essence and beat for a further 2-3 minutes.

Grease and line two 8" round cake pans (original uses a 10" cake pan), divide the batter into two and bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool the cakes on the rack for about an hour after which wrap them in aluminium foil and chill them in the fridge for at least 2 hours (chilling the cakes makes slicing them easier).

For the chocolate buttercream frosting:
(I have used my standard buttercream frosting recipe, the one in Simply Recipes is quite different. Click on the link for the original recipe).

Butter: 250 gms
Icing sugar: 500 gms
Cocoa powder: 4 tbsps
Coffee: 1.5 tbsp (optional, but highly recommended)
Milk/water: 2.5 tbsps

Method:

Beat together the butter and the icing sugar until soft and fluffy. Add in the cocoa powder and beat till incorporated.

Melt the coffee granules into the milk/water and add to the icing and beat for 2 minutes.

For the Chocolate Truffle Icing:
(This is optional, the original recipe doesn't use this, but it does add a lot of oomph to the cake!)

Dark Chocolate: 150 gms
Chocolate butter icing: 1/3 cup
Fresh cream: 5 tbsps

Method:

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Once it melts, add the chocolate butter icing and beat well till the chocolate is completely incorporated.

Remove from the double boiler and add the cream and beat for a further 2-3 minutes till the icing is smooth and glossy.

Cool to room temperature before using.

To assemble the cake:

Slice each cake into 2 equal layers.

Pour some chocolate syrup over each layer (again, this is optional but I find that not only does the syrup raise the chocolatey taste of the cake, it also makes the cake very moist. I use Hershey's chocolate syrup) and sandwich all the layers together with a generous amount of the chocolate buttercream icing.

Once all the layers are sandwiched and stacked up together, cover the entire cake with a thin layer of buttercream icing and chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

Finally, spread the cooled truffle icing. Then, if you can manage the wait, chill for at least an hour before serving.

Banana Bread

2011-03-22T15:22:00.007+02:00

One of the most cherished memories I have of growing up is the hair massage my mom would give both me and my sister every weekend. All through childhood, Sunday mornings would find the two of us lounging on a mat, stuffing our mouths with chiwda and watching T.V. while my mom massaged oil - always warm coconut oil - into our hair.

It is a well known fact that certain scents trigger specific memories and the smell of coconut oil always takes me back to those Sunday mornings, to the easy rhythm of those days and to my mother's touch and love.

It was only when I got married that I discovered, very much to my chagrin, that coconut oil was a much loved cooking medium in my Tamilian husband's family - and all over South India. Seeing my MIL drizzle coconut oil over a bowl of avial, the only thought I had in my mind was "ewww...wonder whether this bottle has come from the bathroom!" I could barely push 'the food containing hair oil' down my throat that day.

But over a period of time, I fell in love with the taste of coconut oil. It has that 'je ne sais quoi' quality - something that I can't put my finger on, but I do know that there are certain dishes that don't taste quite the same if made without coconut oil.

Much maligned the world over for decades as being heart unfriendly, coconut oil seems to be winning new supporters in recent times as being heart healthy! Just a few days ago, I came across this article extolling the virtues of coconut oil. But in the entire article, this sentence caught my eye - "She also mixes virgin coconut oil in oatmeal for creaminess and flavor, uses it to sauté greens, and has successfully played around with it in brownies and banana bread."

Now, the only way I've used coconut oil is in making some curries and stir - fried veggies . But coconut oil in baking? In brownies and banana bread? My curiosity was piqued.

Somehow, coconut oil in banana bread made some sense to me - both bananas and coconuts being tropical fruits and all that and I decided to experiment with coconut oil the next time I made banana bread.

Coconutty Banana Bread

Ingredients:

Mashed bananas: 1 cup (ideally, the bananas should be over-ripe)
Sugar: 3/4 cup
Egg: 1
Baking soda: 1- 1/4tsp
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup, optional
Coconut oil: 1/4 cup (you could also use any vegetable oil of your choice)

All purpose flour: 1 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour: 1/2 cup (if you don't have whole wheat flour, just use 1- 1/2 cups of all purpose flour)
Baking powder: 1- 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder: 1/2 tsp, optional
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Walnuts: 1/4 cup, chopped

Method:

Whisk the flours with the baking powder, cinnamon powder and salt.

Beat the egg and sugar together till fluffy and pale lemony in colour. Then fold in the mashed bananas and the grated coconut. Sprinkle the baking soda over this mixture and fold it in.

Then add the coconut oil in a thin trickle and mix it well into the batter. Finally, fold in the flour in 3 additions and after which mix in the chopped walnuts.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C or 350 deg F. Pour the batter into a greased medium sized loaf pan (I used an oval cake pan as my loaf pan is too large) and bake for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Once the bread was in the oven and baking, I was overcome with a lot of anxiety. What if the coconut oil ruined the bread?

However, any skepticism I had about using coconut oil in the banana bread was gone with the first whiff of the banana bread as it came out of the oven. It was one very aromatic loaf. Nutty notes from the coconut oil, sweet scent of the ripe bananas and a slight hint of cinnamon. Very aromatic indeed. And the taste - oh the taste! The coconut oil imparts a very delicate flavour to the banana bread - one that lingers on on the palate and almost haunts the taste-buds making you reach out for another slice and another and another. So go ahead and try coconut oil in your bakes, you won't be disappointed!

Wordless Wednesday: Say a Little Prayer

2011-03-16T05:39:00.004+02:00

Coconut Pancakes

2011-03-02T04:34:00.009+02:00

I would like you all to believe that we did what we did because we were so wrapped up in each other that we could think of nothing else. I would like you all to think that we did what we did because we were very engrossed in stimulating conversation and got carried away.

But the plain truth is that we did what we did because we were absent-minded.

At the very least, I hope that the waiter and the cashier believed us when we told him that we walked away without paying the bill not because we wanted a free meal, but because we actually forgot about the bill.

If I ever have to list my most embarrassing moments ever, this one would top that list. The one where the husband and I had a hearty breakfast at one of our favourite cafes, tossed the napkins over our empty plates, got up and left. Neither of us realised that there was a bill to be paid!

The next part repeats itself in slow motion: the waiter running behind us and shouting "Excuse me sir, your bill....you didn't pay the bill."

Everyone else in the restaurant stopped eating and we could feel several eyes trained on us. Can you imagine the embarrassment?

Of course, we tried to brush it off with some laughter but once we stepped out, I swore I would never return to the restaurant again. No matter that I loved coconut pancakes there and frequented the restaurant mainly for those pancakes.

Of course, what you cannot go out and eat, you make at home. And make it well, so that you never ever need to go out and eat it at any restaurant again!

Coconut Pancakes

Ingredients:

Plain flour: 3/4 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour: 3/4 cup
Coconut milk: 1.5 cups
Egg: 1 large
Sugar: 2 tbsps
Baking powder: 2 tsps
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Grated coconut: 3 tbsps
Oil: 1 tbsp + some more for greasing the pan

Optional:

Banana: 1
Brown sugar: 2 tbsps

OR

Passion fruit: 2
Mango juice: 1/2 cup
Cornflour: 1 tsp, whisked in 1 tsp water

Method:

Sift both the flours, salt and the baking powder in a bowl. Stir in the sugar and the grated coconut.

Beat the egg and whisk it with the coconut milk and oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and beat to get a smooth batter. Let the batter stand for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the passion fruit and mango coulis. Scoop out the pulp from the passion fruit, mix it into the mango juice and bring to a boil. Add the cornflour and stir it starts to thicken.

Pour a couple of ladles on a greased and heated non stick frying pan. Cook for a couple of minutes; when bubbles start to form on the top , flip over and cook for a further 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Before serving, slice the banana, toss it in the brown sugar and fry it till the sugar just starts to caramelise.

Serve the pancakes with some passion fruit - mango coulis or caramelised banana; I preferred them with the bananas.

I prefer my pancakes on the thinner side; this recipe makes 8 pancakes.

Carrot Cake

2011-02-24T17:58:00.003+02:00

"But we don't like carrot cake", I told him, my voice slightly laced with a little disappointment.

It was night, not at all late by our standards - barely quarter past nine - but in the small town that we were spending a few days holidaying, it might as well have been midnight. Shops and restaurants were shut; even this cafe had its shutters halfway down. We were craving something sweet and while the dessert list boasted things such as Death By Chocolate, New York Cheesecake and Tiramisu, all that was left in the cafe when we walked in was a slice of carrot cake.

"Try mine, you will change your mind about carrot cake", he said confidently.

It was love at first bite and early next morning, we were back at the cafe, ready for more carrot cake. In fact, for the rest of our stay, we religiously dropped in at the cafe each morning for some carrot cake.

Before we left, I casually requested him for his carrot cake recipe, expecting a 'no' for an answer. I was aghast when he produced a print-out of the recipe.

Check it out forthis recipe is, without any exaggeration, the best carrot cake ever. Seriously. The best carrot cake ever!

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

Grated carrots: 2 cups
Tinned pineapple: 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Pecan nuts: 1 cup, chopped
Pineapple juice: 1/4 cup
Eggs: 3
Caster sugar: 1 &1/4 cup

Burnt butter: 3/4 cup
Oil: 1/2 cup

All purpose flour: 1 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour: 3/4 cup (or you could just use 1 & 3/4 cup all purpose flour)
Baking powder: 1 & 1/4 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Cinnamon: 2 & 1/2 tsp
Salt : 1/2 tsp

Method:

Melt the butter in a saucepan and let it simmer on a low flame till it starts to turn brown. Strain through a fine mesh to get rid of the sediment and set aside till it cools to room temperature.

(I use a 250 gm block of butter for this as the frosting also uses burnt butter)

Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Drain the pineapple slices and chop into bite sized pieces. Retain the juice; you will need 1/4 cup for the cake.

Beat together the eggs and the sugar till pale and creamy and tripled in volume. With the beaters still running, pour the cooled burnt butter and the oil into the egg - sugar mixture in a thin stream and beat for a further 2 -3 minutes.

Add the grated carrots, chopped pineapple and chopped pecan nuts to the above mixture. Fold in the sifted, dry ingredients in 3 quick additions. Finally, add the pineapple juice to the batter.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C.

Grease and line a deep 8" cake pan, pour half the prepared batter into the pan and bake for about 35- 40 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Repeat with the remaining batter.

This is frosting is nutty, caramelly and complements the carrot cake as no other ordinary cream cheese frosting. Try it once and you will be hooked.

Butterscotch Cream Cheese and Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients:

Burnt butter: 4 tbsps
Brown sugar: 2/3 cup
Fresh Cream: 1/2 cup (don't use low fat cream)
Fat free cream cheese: 175 gms
Mascarpone cheese: 75 gms
Lime juice: 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powder: 1/4 tsp

Method:

In a saucepan, mix together the sugar and butter. Stir constantly over a low heat until the sugar melts. Take the pan off the fire and add the fresh cream - be very careful at this stage, the caramel will bubble and smoke when the cream is added to it. Stir briskly till the cream and caramel are properly combined together. If you end up with a few hard pieces of caramel ( and in all likelihood, you will), just stir over a low flame till the lumps melt. Let this mixture cool to room temperature.

Beat the cream cheese and the mascarpone cheese together until creamy - don't overbeat, else you will end up with a runny mess instead of a creamy frosting!. Add the cooled butterscotch to the beaten cheeses until light and fluffy. Finally, fold in the lime juice and the cinnamon powder.

Sandwich the two cakes with some frosting and smother the remaining frosting over the sandwiched cakes.

(Though this is not what I do. Carrot cake freezes beautifully. So I freeze one cake and reserve half of the frosting. Then, after a few days, I defrost the cake by simply letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight and frost it in the morning. Half the effort, double the pleasure!)

Now, if you had to choose one - just one - cake to make from the 15 odd that I have posted so far, this is the one you should choose. You won't regret it, I assure you.

Wordless Wednesday: Shape of My Heart

2011-02-16T16:26:00.007+02:00

Wordless Wednesday: Stairway to.....

2011-02-09T05:53:00.004+02:00

.................Heaven?

Wordless Wednesday: After The Rain

2011-02-02T17:10:00.005+02:00

Easy Breezy Potato Stir Fry

2011-01-28T04:33:00.004+02:00

A month before our marriage and "I don't know how to cook" was something my husband heard me say more often than "I love you". Much as I was eager to tie the knot, the thought of having to manage a house, especially handling the cooking, was giving me nightmares.

He would, of course, reassure me that I didn't have to worry about cooking. "Takeaway" and "employing someone to cook" were the words he said more often than "I love you".

Perhaps it was the lure of the shiny, new pots and pans. Perhaps it was the complete boredom with having takeaway food everyday. Perhaps it was that thing called love. Whatever it was, before long, I wanted to cook a meal for us.

Batatyachi kachryachi bhaji (loosely translated as sliced potato stir fry) is what I settled on. After all, you can't go wrong with potatoes - they taste delicious any which way you make them. Plus, though I had never actually made the stir fry myself, I had seen my mum make it very very often and knew that it was very easy to make.

"This is delicious! Who says you can't cook?!" he said when he had the potato stir fry. " Yessss, I can cook," I thought to myself happily. Carried away by the success at the potato stir fry, I took on a more challenging recipe to cook the next day. That was a disaster, but more of that on some other post.

For now, check out this easy breezy spicy potato stir fry, our favourite way of having potatoes.

Ingredients:

Potatoes: 3 medium sized
Onions: 1 large
Curry leaves: 7-8
Green chillies: 2, chopped
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsps, chopped
Mustard seeds: 3/4 tsp
Asafoetida/hing: 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt, to taste
Oil: 1.5 tbsps

Method:

Wash the potatoes and pat dry. Quarter them length-wise and then slice them into thin triangles.

Soak them in a bowl of water for about 10 mins and then drain them.

Heat oil in a non stick wok. Add the mustard seeds and when they crackle, add the green chillies, curry leaves and the hing and stir for half a minute.

Toss in the onions and saute till they soften and turn pink. Add the turmeric powder and salt and stir for half a minute.

Now add the drained potatoes and stir fry them on a high heat (you need to keep stirring constantly else the potatoes will stick to the pan and gently else they will fall apart as they start to cook) for about 10 minutes or until done.

Finally, add the coriander leaves and the juice of half a lemon.

Serve hot with dal, rice and some pickle on the side for a really rustic, hearty and satisfying meal.

Lemongrass Chicken Skewers

2011-01-18T17:48:00.001+02:00

Say Thai food and the first thing that comes to mind is the ubiquitous Green Curry followed closely by Tom Yum Soup or Pad Thai or Red Curry or Chicken wrapped in pandan leaves. Take any Thai restaurant anywhere in the world and you will most certainly find these few dishes on the menu, no matter that in some places, they don't quite taste like the "real" thing!

Thai cuisine is one of our favourites and one that we turn to very often. We love the spicy and zesty flavours, combined with the very aromatic herbs that almost do a tango on the tongue! Oh yes, I will say this again, we simply love Thai food.

One of my favourite Thai dishes is this grilled chicken on lemongras skewers. Delicately flavoured with basil and chilli, it is the faint aromatic hint of lemongrass that takes its taste to an entirely different level.

Not too many restaurants seem to carry it on their menus but making them at home is so so easy that you will not want to seek it on restaurant menus at all!

Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Skewers

Ingredients:

Chicken mince: 750 gms
Garlic paste: 1.5 tbsp
Ginger paste: 1 tbsp
Red chillies: 2
Basil leaves: 2 tbsps, finely chopped
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsps, finely chopped
Lemongrass stalk: 2 tsps, very finely chopped
Fish sauce: 1 tsp, optional
Lime juice: 1 tbsp
Salt
Egg: 1, small (I use a 40 gm egg)

Lemongrass stalks: 10 nos

for the basting liquid:

Sugar: 2 tsps

Finely chopped lemongrass stalk: 1 tsp

Water: 3 tsps

Oil: 3 tsps

Method:

Wash the lemongrass stalks and pat dry. Run a rolling pin along the length of the stalks in order to release the aromatic oils. Cut the stalk into 2 (each piece should be about 5 inches long) and set aside.

Into the chicken mince, add the ginger garlic pastes, chopped red chillies, finely chopped basil and coriander leaves, lemon juice, salt and fish oil, if using, and mix well.

Lightly beat the egg and add it to the chicken mince. Mix well.

(You need to taste test at this stage to ensure that all the flavours are to your liking. To do that, fry a small ball of mince over the frying pan or zap it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Taste and adjust the herbs and seasonings to suit your taste).

Divide the mince into 20 equal portions and chill for about 15 minutes in the fridge.

Dab a little oil over your palms, shape each ball of mince around one end of the lemongrass stalk and place over a baking tray lined with aluminium foil.

Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or longer.

Pre-heat the oven/grill to 180 deg C. Brush the top side of the skewers with the basting liquid and grill for 10 minutes. Turn them over, brush with the basting liquid and grill for a further 10 minutes or until done.

Meanwhile, make a dipping sauce. I mix together a splash of light soy sauce, fish oil, rice wine vinegar, honey, chilli flakes and chopped lemongrass.

Serve hot with the dipping sauce and some salad on the side.

These grilled lemongrass chicken skewers are a crowd pleaser. Whenever I serve it as finger food at parties, they are gone in no time. Take a bite and you'll know why!

Dark Chocolate Orange Ice Cream

2011-01-11T17:53:00.003+02:00

I love chocolates. I have always loved chocolates. (The many cavities in my teeth and the dentist bills I have raked up over the years will bear testimony to that love!)

Initially, it was milk chocolates and chocolates with assorted nuts and dry fruits. Much later, I discovered dark chocolates and liqueur centred chocolates and my love for chocolates only intensified.

Ironically, much as I love chocolates, I don't much care for chocolate ice cream. In fact, it has been ages since I ate chocolate ice cream.

A couple of days ago, I happened to zest some oranges for making this Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake, when all of a sudden, I had this intense desire to have the chocolate orange combo in an ice cream.

The cake didn't happen that evening but I managed to fall in love with chocolates in ice creams after a long, long time!

Dark Chocolate Orange Ice Cream

(adapted from Desi Soccer Mom and The Italian Chef)

Ingredients:

Low fat milk: 3 cups

Sugar: 3/4 cup* (you could do a taste test and add more, 3/4 cup works perfectly for us)

Cornflour: 2 tbsps

Cocoa: 3 tbsps

Bittersweet chocolate chips**: 2/3 cup

Low fat cream: 1/2 cup

Zest of 1.5 oranges

Orange essence: 1/4 tsp

Vodka: 1 tbsp, optional

(**if using semi-sweet chocolate chips, reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup)

Method:

In a cup of milk, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and the cornstarch till the mixture is lump-free and smooth. (I simply put everything into a liquidiser - saves a lot of effort in mixing!)

In a small saucepan, heat the cream till it starts to bubble around the edges. Pour it over the chocolate chips and mix till the chocolate chips are melted.

In another saucepan, combine 2 cups of milk with the orange zest. Heat until the milk just starts to steam. Turn the heat off, cover and let it steep for about 10 minutes. Then remove the zest from the milk and re-heat till the milk starts to simmer.

Pour the cocoa mixture into the simmering milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Continue to stir and cook the mixture on a low heat until it comes to a rolling boil and starts to thicken. Turn off the gas and remove the saucepan from the burner.

Add the cream-chocolate chips mixture and the orange essence to this custard and stir till properly combined.

Cool on the counter top to room temperature, add in the vodka, if using, and then chill in the refrigerator for atleast 5-6 hours, preferably overnight and then freeze according to the directions of your ice cream machine.

Mmm....mmmm....mmmmmm.....if you love the chocolate orange combo, then this is a flavour you must absolutely must try. The dark chocolate gives it a very intense chocolatey taste followed by a very delicate flavour of orange.

However, if you'd rather not mix chocolates and oranges, just skip the orange zest and the essence from the recipe. The resulting dark chocolate ice cream will satiate every chocoholic!

This delicious melting treat is off to Julia who is hosting In the Bag - December.

Cheesy Garlic and Spiced Cottage Cheese Pull Apart Rolls

2011-01-07T12:18:00.003+02:00

Remember in this post I had mentioned a word that I like very much? Yes....serendipity.

These rolls were also, in a way, serendipitous.

It was like this....one morning, I was standing in the check out lane at the local supermarket. Behind me were two women and they were excitedly discussing some dinner party that they had been to. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but then in my defense, they were speaking a tad loudly and they bitching about the food that was served. "Except for the stuffed buns...you know, the ones with feta cheese and spinach. Those were divine," declared one of them.

Stuffed feta cheese and spinach buns....that sounded very interesting and I made a mental note to find out about those buns.

Back home, I wasted no time in googling 'stuffed feta cheese buns'. I was also simultaneouly surfing through some food blogs and landed on this post.

Now, I had bookmarked Suhaina's garlic rolls quite sometime back, but never got around to making them. Ditto with Nag's bread paneer rolls.

With the thought of those stuffed feta cheese buns still in my head, somehow an idea began to take shape - why not make the rolls as per Suhaina's recipe and use some spiced paneer as per Nag's recipe in place of the garlic butter?

Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Rolls and Spiced Cottage Cheese Pull Apart Rolls
(adapted from here and here)

Ingredients:

for the bread:

Plain flour: 1.5 cups OR plain flour : 1 cup and whole wheat bread flour: 1/2 cup*
Yeast: 1/2 tbsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 1 tbsp
Water: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps
Olive oil: 2 tbsps + 1 tsp

*(the rolls in the photos are made from plain white flour; I have since made them with a combination of whole wheat flour and plain flour and they are just as good).

for the paneer/ cottage cheese stuffing:

Crumbed paneer: 1/2 cup
Chopped bell pepper: 2 tbsps
Chopped onion: 2 tbsps
Nando's hot peri peri sauce: 1 tbsp (substitute with any other spicy sauce or tomato ketchup)
Sugar: 1 tsp
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsps, chopped
Salt

Simply toss all the ingredients together into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

for the garlic butter:

Unsalted butter: 3 tbsps (original uses salted but I was also using cheese and hence used unsalted butter)
garlic: 2 tsps, grated
coriander leaves: 2 tbps finely chopped
grated cheese: 2 tbsps (optional but it really ups the yum factor)

Beat the butter for 2-3 minutes, then mix the grated cheese, garlic and the coriander leaves.

Method:

Mix the yeast with a tbsp of water and sugar and set aside for 10 mins, by which time you will see a creamy foam starting to form - this means that all's well with the yeast.

(in the original recipe, the yeast is whisked with the flour, but I prefer to ensure that my yeast is alive and well before I proceed with the making the dough).

Whisk together the flour and the salt. Add in the yeast mixture and the warm water and mix till all the flour comes together into a ball of dough. Depending on the flour you use, the temperature and humidity in your part of the world, you might need to use more or less water.

Add the oil to the dough, half a tbsp at a time, and knead to get a smooth dough. The dough should spring back when pressed with the fingers.

Grease a large bowl with a tsp of olive oil, turn the dough in the oil so that it is evenly coated with the oil, cover the bowl with a damp tea cloth and let the dough double. My dough took about an hour to double.

Punch out the air from the dough and divide it into two.

On a well floured surface, roll out one ball into a rectangle about 1 cm thick. Spread the paneer mixture evenly over it and roll it into a log, as such:

Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 4 equal portions.

Then roll out the second ball of dough in a similar fashion and spread the garlic butter on top, roll into a log and cut into 4 equal portions.

In well greased baking tray, place the rolls cut side up and brush the top with some milk. I alternate the garlic butter rolls and the masala paneer rolls (just for the heck of it!) as such:

Let the rolls rise for about 20 minutes and in the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C.

Bake for about 30 - 35 mins till the top of the rolls turns golden brown.

Take a blob of cold butter and rub it over the top of the freshly baked rolls. This is optional but it gives the rolls a lovely shine. When cool enough to handle, pull them apart and eat.

The garlic rolls are very popular all over the blogosphere and with good reason. They are pillowy soft and oh so delicious. We had them alongwith this vegetable casserole and they were absolutely amazing.

But it was the cottage cheese rolls that had me all excited - with the addition of whole wheat flour, the stuffed rolls are filling and nutritious and I think they are perfect as a 'grab n go' breakfast or as a snack in children's snack boxes. What is more, you can vary the stuffings to suit your taste.....since I first made them, I am constantly thinking up different stuffings for the rolls: spinach and mushroom, spicy potatoes, minced meat....the possibilities are endless! So go right ahead, conjure up your own stuffings and stuff yourselves with these rolls!

And yes, these rolls have been Yeastspotted.

Rich Chocolate Mud Cake

2010-12-28T07:33:00.003+02:00

She had been waiting to bake this cake since morning, since the minute she had seen the recipe. It was a cake that was calling out to her. She loved chocolates and she loved coffee and she loved whisky. A cake that had all three - now that was going to be absolute nirvana.

Now with the kids fast asleep and the husband not expected back home for at least another hour, she could finally start baking.

But just as took the whisky bottle out of the liquor cabinet, she heard the key turn in the lock. The husband was back earlier than expected. On any other day she would have been thrilled but today she felt a small pang of disappointment. "There goes my baking," she thought to herself.

"Having a drink all alone, are you? he smiled as he walked in. "Pour me one as well, I'll take a quick shower and join you."

"I wasn't drinking. You know I never have a drink alone! I was just about to bake a cake but you've put paid to all my plans now by coming back earlier," she smiled.

"Cake with whisky in it....now that sounds intriguing. Never heard of one before."

"I'm sure it is going to be yum. I can just feel it."

"Tell you what - let's have a quick drink and have dinner and then we can bake that cake together!" He had never quite understood her passion for baking - he wondered why she bothered putting in so much effort when there were very good gourmet cakes available all over the city. But over the years, he had learnt better than to dissuade he from baking and deprive her of the pleasure she derived from baking.

"Sounds like a great plan," she beamed.

An hour later, he was ready to bake.

"Now?, she said, looking at the clock. It was a quarter past ten. "Too late for that now. The cake takes an hour and a half to bake. I am just too sleepy - the whisky has made me way too drowsy, no way I can sit up and wait for it to bake! I'll bake in the morning. Clear the kitchen, will you please? I can barely keep my eyes open."

"Sure thing."

He started putting away the measuring cups and the cake pan and happened to glance at the recipe that she had printed out. Whisky in a cake? With chocolate and coffee? Somehow, it just didn't sound right to him. Rum and chocolate and coffee was a great combination, but whisky? It just didn't appeal to him!

As he put the whisky back into the liquor cabinet, his eyes fell on the bottle of Kahlua. That was it....Kahlua, and not whisky, was perfect for the cake.

Suddenly, he was in the grip of an overpowering urge to bake the cake right away, all by himself. Soon, he was in the kitchen, melting and mixing the ingredients, getting intoxicated by the combined aromas of coffee, chocolate and Kahlua.

Two and a half hours later, he had not just baked the cake but had also set in on a platter on the table and secured with a ribbon - as a surprise for her - his face radiating the pleasure of someone who had just discovered the urge, the joy and the satisfaction of baking from scratch.

This food fiction is off to Jaya of Spice and Curry who is hosting Of Chalks and Chopsticks - 6.

Rich Chocolate Mud Cake (adapted from from Australian Women's Weekly).

Ingredients:

(A)

Butter: 250 gms
Sugar: 1 and 3/4 cup
Dark Chocolate: 200 gms
Kahlua: 1/3 cup or 80 ml
Instant coffee granules: 1 tbsp
Warm water: 250 ml or 1 cup

(B)

Plain Flour: 1.5 cups or 225 gms
Self Raising Flour: 1/4 cup or 35 gms
Cocoa Powder: 1/4 cup or 25 gms

Eggs: 2

Method:

In a saucepan, mix together all the ingredients listed under (A). Stir on a low heat until the chocolate melts. Cool it to room temperature.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients listed under (B). Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until you get a smooth batter.

Lightly beat the eggs and add it to the batter.

Grease and line a (deep) 20 cm or 8" cake pan and transfer the batter into the pan. Bake at 160 deg C for 90 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Notes:

1. I pre-heat the oven for this recipe for just about 15 minutes.
2. I halved the recipe and baked it in a 6" square tray; it took me just under an hour to bake my cake.

3. I thought that the water was a bit too much, so I plan to reduce it to 225 ml the next time.

This is a dense and intensely chocolatety cake with a whiff of coffee and Kahlua. I served this cake with some raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream - sinfully delicious!

Sending this cake off to Ria who is hosting Meeta's Monthly Mingle, the theme this time is Chocolate Extravaganza.

Baked Vegetables in White Sauce

2010-12-22T17:49:00.004+02:00

Let me tell you a little of how we spend our weekends. Now we aren't the kind of family that plans a variety of activities to do over a weekend - we are much to lazy for that. In fact, we are the kind of family that spends its weekends lounging on the sofa, listening to music or reading some books and not moving a muscle for as long as we can help it.

Yes, we do our fair share of going out. But a lot of it is related to food and eating out. For eg. we go very often to the beach in the mornings because we love having breakfast at the South Indian restaurant there. Or we end up at the Botanical Gardens because having lunch at a restaurant there over a couple of beers on a hot, sunny afternoon seems almost magical. You get the drift right?

But much as we enjoy eating out, come Sunday evenings and we crave for a dinner that is very simple to make and very hearty. Most of the times, we settle for some piping hot aloo parathas or a hearty spanish omelette. Occasionally, I make kathi rolls from some leftovers.

Often, I dig up and pick out bits and bobs of vegetables buried in my crisper and throw them together into a low fat white sauce.

Now I know what you are thinking - that 'low fat' white sauce is an oxymoron. Well, not quite.

Based on an idea I saw on Raaga's blog, I make my white sauce with skimmed milk and low fat cheese slices. The resultant sauce is adequately thick and creamy and perfect for a light and satisfying Sunday evening vegetable casserole.

Ingredients:

Butter: 1 tbsp
All purpose flour: 2.5 tbsps
Skimmed milk: 2.5 cups (the milk should be at room temperature)
Low fat cheese slices: 3
Salt, pepper: to taste
Mustard paste: 1 tsp

Mixed vegetables: approximately 2 cups ( I used 1/2 cup each of green peas, broccoli and cauliflower; 1 carrot and 1 potato )

Grated cheddar cheese: 2 tbsps

Method:

Steam all the vegetables and set aside. You might need to cook them separately as the cooking time for every vegetable varies. I zap them in the microwave for a few minutes).

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and mix it well. Cook on low heat for about 4-5 minutes, without allowing the flour to turn brown. I take my pan off the burner a few times when doing this in order to avoid browning of the flour.

Stirring constantly, slowly add the milk in a thin stream and in small batches. (Here's what I do to avoid lumps in my white sauce - transfer the flour from the pan into a mug and add a little milk and mix it thoroughly. Then transfer it back to the pan and add the rest of the milk. The result? Completely lump-free sauce)

Keep stirring and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add all the salt, pepper powder and the mustard paste. Finally add the cheese slices and mix well till the cheese melts. Simmer for a few more minutes till the sauce thickens.

Arrange the vegetables in a baking dish, I use my 9" pie dish. Pour the sauce over it, sprinkle the grated cheese over it and bake in the oven (pre-heat the oven first) at 200 deg C till the cheese starts to brown.

Serve with some brown bread.

Taking this vegetable casserole to Nupur's Blog Bites - 9, the theme this time is Holiday Buffet.

Chocolate Chip Muffin

2010-12-15T17:40:00.002+02:00

A few months ago, I woke up in the morning with a headache so severe that I couldn't even bear to move my head. A couple of hours and a couple of painkillers later, the headache was still just as bad. The only way was to sleep it off but with my (naughty) daughter at home and no one to babysit her - the husband was travelling too - sleep was a little hard to come by.

I put her in front of the telly telling her she could watch it for as long as she wanted to. I expected her to be glued to the telly but the moment she realised that she had a free rein to watch her favourite cartoons, she quickly lost interest in watching them.

"Play with me", she said to me.

"Why don't you fix some puzzles", I suggested. "And then you when you are done, you can have some chocolate". Yes, I was subtly bribing her to leave me alone for some more time. To her credit, she did manage to keep herself busy with the puzzles for a while and I gave her some chocolate as promised.

"But I don't want to have chocolate", she said. I was flummoxed - I mean I can't ever say 'no' to chocolate and here she was, a 5 year old, refusing to have any. But I hadn't heard the rest of it....

"......I want chocolate chip muffins. You make some muffins now", she demanded.

"Mama's head is aching", I explained to her. "Let me rest just a little while longer, then I'll have some tea and make you the muffins", I told her.

She nodded and went off to her room. I could hear toys being scattered and then the sound of a tap gushing and braced myself for a major clean up operation later in the day. Moments later, she was standing next to me, her toy teacup filled to the brim with water in one hand and a tube of Euky bearub in the other.

"Mama will drink the tea and put the balm and she will become alright and then we can make the muffins", she proclaimed confidently.

Anything for such an adorable caregiver! I headed straight to the kitchen and started to fix her some muffins right away.

Some days remain etched in memory forever. I don't think I can never ever forget the sight of my little girl helping me to make the muffins that day. I measured out the dry ingredients and she whisked them together. Then she poured out the wet ingredients and I mixed everything together to get the batter ready. I spooned it out into the muffin tray and she sprinkled the chocolate chips on top. In no time, the aroma of freshly baked muffins wafted through the house.

These muffins are very very quick and easy to make. I have stayed true to the original recipe from Joy of Baking except for a very minor change - instead of sprinkling the cinnamon on top, I mix it into the batter. A very small change but one that makes a significant improvement to the taste.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 3/4 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour: 1/4 cup
Baking Powder: 1.5 tsps
Salt: 1/4 tsp (omit if using salted butter)
Cinnamon Powder: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp
Semi sweet/ bittersweet chocolate chips: 1/2 cup

Egg: 1
Milk: 1/2 cup
Butter OR Oil: 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C/ 375 deg F. Grease a muffin pan with butter or baking spray.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Reserve a tbsp of the chocolate chips and toss the the rest into the dry ingredients.

Melt the butter and let it cool completely but don't let it set again. Whisk together the cooled melted butter, milk, egg and the vanilla essence. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring until the ingredients are just combined.

Spoon into the prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle the reserved chocolate chips on top and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean.

Incredibly moist and with a delicate crumb, these muffins are best eaten on the day they are made and best served a little warm. I prefer them with bittersweet chocolate chips, but they are slightly bigger and don't look as nice as ones with the semi sweet chocolate chips.

You could also make them with oil, they are a little more denser when made with oil but are definitely more healthier and just as tasty.

Enjoy!

Sending this cake off to Ria who is hosting Meeta's Monthly Mingle, the theme this time is Chocolate Extravaganza

Punjabi Chhole

2010-12-09T17:47:00.007+02:00

In terms of cooking, this has been a quest like no other. The quest, an obsession even, for the perfect chhole recipe. Over the years, I have tried numerous recipes for making chhole. It was the first recipe I would look up in cook books and blogs. Some worked, some didn't. Then I came across this recipe and I thought that my quest had come to an end.

Until I tasted my friend M's chhole. The best that I had ever had.

And while I do have a couple of 'friends' who blatantly proclaim that recipes are not for sharing, I am fortunate to have many more like M who don't just share the recipes but also the specific brands they use and the small tips that make all the difference to the ultimate taste.

Take a look, looks absolutely lip-smacking doesn't it?

Pre-preparation:

1. Masala paste

Green cardamoms: 6
Black cardamom: 1
Cloves: 4
Cinnamon: 1" stick
Black pepper: 10
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Coriander seeds: 2 tsps
Garlic: 10 cloves
Ginger: 1.5" piece
Green chilli: 1

Lightly toast all the above except ginger, garlic and green chillies for 2 mins on a very low flame. The objective here is to not roast but simply warm the dry spices. Then grind all the ingedients to a smooth paste, using some water as required. This masala paste can be kept in the refrigerator for about 10 days.

2. Bouquet garni:

black cardamoms: 2
green cardamoms: 4
cinnamon: 1" stick
cloves: 8 nos
tea bag: 1, optional (I don't use one as I don't like my chhole to be black, I much prefer the vibrant orange)

Put all of the above into a small square cheesecloth or a net and secure with a kitchen twine.

Making the chhole:

Onions: 2, finely chopped
Bay leaf: 1
Tomato paste: 2.5 tbsps OR Tomato puree: 5 tbsps (brand - Leggo's or Heinz)
Masala paste: 2 tbsps
Chickpeas/garbanzo beans: 3/4 cup
Salt to taste
Chicken curry powder (MDH brand) OR Chhole masala (Everest brand): 1 tsp

for garnishing:

cumin seeds: 2 tsps, roasted and powdered
onion: 1 small, finely chopped
corainder leaves: 2 tbsps, chopped

Method:

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of water overnight or for about 8-10 hours. Drain and wash thoroughly.

Add 1.5 cups of water, slip in the bouquet garni and pressure cook for atleast 5-6 whistles. If you don't use a pressure cooker (really?), you could also cook them in a slow cooker or boil them in a thick bottomed vessel till soft.

Heat oil in a wok and add in the bay leaf. Let it sizzle for half a minute and then toss in the chopped onions alongwith a pinch of salt; fry till the onions turn limp.

Now add 2 tbsps of the masala paste and fry till the raw smell disappears, about 5 minutes. If the masala paste starts to stick to the pan, sprinkle a few drops of water.

Next put in the tomato paste, salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Stir fry till the oil separates from the mixture.

Then add in the cooked chickpeas (discard the bouquet garni) and the chicken curry masala and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and let the chickpeas simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adjusting the amount of water as per your preference. It might seem way too long but trust me on this - the longer you cook chhole, better the taste. In fact, I transfer everything into my crockpot and let it simmer away for about 3 hours.

Just before serving, stir in the roasted cumin seed powder and garnish with some finely chopped onions and coriander leaves.

Puris, bhaturas, rotis or rice....enjoy them with just about anything!

Sharing this with Priya who is hosting MLLA # 30, event started by Susan.

Apple Pie

2010-11-23T11:22:00.003+02:00

There are some words in the English language that I just love the sound of. Serendipity is one such word. I simply love the way the syllables roll off the tongue when saying 'serendipity'.

It is also the one word that I will always associate with my daughter's paediatrician. A phenomenal doctor, she has often gone beyond the call of duty in attending to my daughter. And to think, I met her when I had gone to buy some toys for the little one! A serendipitous meeting but one that I will forever look back on with fondness and gratitude.

She is a constant source of inspiration with her boundless energy and insatiable appetite to learn new things. Cooking is just one of her many passions and this apple pie recipe is adapted from the one she shared with me.

It is quite different from the normal apple pie recipes where the apples slices are simply tossed in sugar and spices and then baked. In this particular recipe the apples slices are coated in a sauce and then baked in the crust.

Yes, it takes longer than the traditional recipes but the resulting pie is totally worth the effort!

Ingredients

for the crust:
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Unsalted butter: 2/3 cups + 2 tbsps/ 175 gms (original uses shortening)
Ice cold water: 4-6 tbsps
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 2 tbsps

Method:

Cut the cold butter into cubes and chill again for about 15-20 mins. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and the salt. Add in the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips till you get a grainy and crumbly mixture, with pea sized pices of butter.

Add in the water, a tablespoon at a time, till the mixture comes together and forms a dough.

I planned to make 2 five inch pies, and so I divided the dough into 4 equal balls, wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and refrigerated them for a couple of hours.

(The dough is otherwise sufficient for a single 9" pie)

for the filling:

Apples: 6 ( I used Granny Smith)
Brown Sugar: 1/2 cup
Rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon
Cinnamon powder: 1 tsp
Allspice/Nutmeg powder: 1/2 tsp
Orange juice: 1/2 cup
Juice of 1 lemon
Cornstarch: 1 tbsp
Butter: 1 tsp
Pecan nuts/walnuts: 1/3 cup

Method:

Peel and core the apples and cut them into thick slices.

Toss the slices in the sugar, the orange and lemon rinds, cinnamon and nutmeg powders and the lime juice and let them macerate for half an hour.

Then cook the apple slices till they just become limp. Once cooled, add the orange juice and the rum, if using, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

After the refrigeration time has elapsed, transfer the mixture into a strainer placed over a larger vessel in order to separate the juice from the apple slices. Allow to strain for about 15-20 mins.

Place the strained juice in a small saucepan and let simmer till syrup. Add the butter, stir and then add in the cornstarch stirring continuously till the juice thickens. Mix the apple slices and the chopped nuts into the sauce and allow to cool.

Assembling the pie:

Take one ball of the dough and on a lightly floured surface, roll it to a 7 inch circle, about 1/8" thick. Gently transfer it to a greased pie pan. Press firmly on the bottom and the sides of the pan, trimming off the excess with a pastry knife. Cover with a cling wrap and refrigerate.

To make a lattice patterned top, first cut out a parchment paper circle the size of your pie pan.

Roll out the dough and cut it into strips as such:

Transfer two strips vertically and horizontally on the parchment circle as such:

Place the next strip vertically and going over the horizontal strip as such:

Then put the next strip horizontally, tucking it under the first vertical strip and over the next vertical strip as such:

Continue placing the strips in a similar manner, going alternately under and over the other strips. The distance between the strips is entirely a matter of personal choice. I love to eat pie crust and hence I chose to have a tightly knit top:

Cover with another parchment circle and chill. Repeat for the second pie pan.

Pre heat the oven to 200 deg C.

Then put the filling into the pie pans. To seal the pie, simply invert the lattice patterned top over the filling and peel off the parchment paper. Seal the strips over the rim of the pie pan, brush the top with some melted butter and sprinkle some caster sugar.

Bake for about 30 - 35 mins or until the top is lightly browned and the juices start bubbling over.
Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool for a couple of hours before cutting it.

Serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream; personally, I love to have just as it is without anything else coming in the way of the heavenly cinnamon and orange flavoured apple slices encrusted in a shortbread like flaky crust!

Rushing this pie off to Meeta's Monthly Mingle that Deeba is hosting this month.

Baklava

2010-11-10T05:57:00.001+02:00

Special occasions call for really special treats, don't they?

And this is a special occasion that warrants a really special treat. After all, this is the time of festival of lights Diwali, my favourite festival. But more importantly, this is my 150th post and in a neat coincidence, it is also the month my blog turns 2!

And as far as special treats go, there can be nothing more exotic or exquisite than baklava.

Believed to be of Turkish origin, baklava is an extremely popular sweet in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East. Layers of phyllo pastry stuffed with nuts and sweetened with some sugar syrup, baklava is one of my favourite sweets and was something that I had been craving for a long time now.

The recipes sounded easy enough but one thing held me back - the fear of working with phyllo dough.

As it turned out, my fears were completely misplaced. Phyllo dough is not quite the villain I had thought it was. In fact, I found it surprisingly easy to work with, making me wonder why I had been putting off making baklava for so long!

Don't let the long recipe put you off - making baklava is very, very easy. All that it needs is some pre-preparation and a single minded devotion to the task at hand.

Ingredients:

Phyllo dough: 24 sheets
Assorted nuts: 1.5 cups (I used pistachios, pecan nuts, hazelnuts and almonds)
Sugar: 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder: 1/2 tsp
Melted ghee (or butter): 1/3 cup

for the syrup:

Sugar: 3/4 cup
Honey: 1/4 cup
Water: 1 cup
Cinnamon stick: 2"long
Cardamom pods: 10 nos, slightly bruised
Lemon juice: 1.5 tbsp
Rose water: 2.5 tbsps

Method:

The one essential thing while making the baklava is to have all your pre-preparation completed in all respects before starting the assembly.

So, first thaw the phyllo dough as per the package instructions. Hastily and inadequately thawed sheets tend to stick to each other and tear. Once thawed, cover the sheets with a moist cheesecloth till you are ready to proceed with the assembly.

Next up, make the sugar syrup. In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients required for making the syrup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a further 10 - 15 mins or until thick and well....syrupy. Cool completely.

While the sugar syrup simmers, process the nuts in the mixie to get a coarse powder. (If using a mix of nuts, process them separately). Toss the nuts with sugar, the cinnamon and cardamom powders. Set aside.

Melt the ghee/butter.

Brush the sides and bottom of your baking dish with the melted ghee.

Finally, cut the thawed phyllo sheets to fit your baking tray. With a sharp knife, you can cut all sheets in one go. I cut my sheets to fit a 8"x10" pan.

Now you are ready to assemble the baklava:

Place a sheet of the phyllo dough into the baking dish and brush it with some melted ghee. Repeat 7 times, making sure you brush the top of each sheet with melted ghee before placing
another sheet on top.

Spread 1/2 cup of the nut mixture on top.

Then place 4 sheets of phyllo dough on top of the nut mixture, brushing each sheet with the melted ghee.
Again spread 1/2 cup of the nut mixture.
Repeat with 4 sheets of phyllo dough and 1/2 cup of nuts once again.

Finally, place 8 sheets of phyllo dough on top of the nuts.

So, once assembled, the baklava will have:

8 sheets of phyllo at the bottom
1/2 cup of nuts
4 sheets of phyllo
1/2 cup of nuts
4 sheets of phyllo
1/2 cup of nuts
8 sheets of phyllo

Cut into squares or diamonds, making sure that you cut all the way through to the last sheet of the phyllo dough.

Bake for about 30 - 35 mins or until the top is evenly browned and crisp.

Pour the cooled sugar syrup over the baklava as soon as you take it out of the oven. Allow the baklava to soak the syrup for a minimum of 6-8 hours and preferably overnight; in fact it tastes the best when left undisturbed for 24 hours - that is if it lasts that long.

Utterly decadent, baklava is a sinful treat that is absolutely irrestible. Take it from someone who is very careful about what she eats, the baklava is so very addictive that you will find it difficult to stop at just one. This recipe yielded 20 pieces but at the rate at which they were disappearing, I actually had to hide a couple of pieces for taking pictures - the rest were gone that very day!

So go ahead and indulge!

Sooji ka Halwa

2010-10-28T14:58:00.007+02:00

"Why don't you make something else instead?"

For all our love of sweets, sooji ka halwa as we call it (or rava kesari as the husband calls it or goda sheera as I call it) is something that I had made very, very rarely in the first few years of marriage. Yes, I know how ridiculous it must sound. After all, sooji ka halwa is so easy to make, it tastes divine and almost everybody loves it.

The problem with sooji ka halwa is that though it is easy to make, it is as easy to mess up.

And, well my first attempt at making it was quite a disaster. I think the husband must have been quite scared off by that attempt for whenever I would offer to make sooji ka halwa, he would always come up with some alternatives. "Why don't you make some fruit salad instead? Or, how about some payasam? Or, let us get some ice cream." You get the drift, right?

"Hmmm...now this is going to be interesting!"

I don't think he missed eating sooji ka halwa. I mean, if he did, wouldn't he have asked my MIL to make whenever we went visiting or when she came over?

Then, my daughter had sooji ka halwa on a playdate and took a liking for it. When she started demanding that I make it at for her, the husband very amused.

A long call to mom and some detailed instructions later, I was all ready to tackle sooji ka halwa. Turned out that making sooji ka halwa was after all really very, very easy.

Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:

Semolina: 1 cup
Milk: 2 cups
Water: 1/2 cup
Ghee/Clarified butter: 3 tbsps + 1 tbsp
Sugar: 3/4 cup (you could also increase it to 1 cup if you like it sweeter, I use 3/4 cup)
Cardamom powder made from crushing about 8-10 cardamom pods)
Salt: a pinch

optional:

some raisins, cashewnuts and almonds
Banana: 1 medium sized

Method:

In a small vessel, combine the milk and the water, toss in the raisins, if using, and bring it to a boil.

While the liquid boils, pour the semolina into a wok and start roasting it. Once it is warmed, say 2 minutes later, add 3 tbsps ghee to it. Continue to stir - and stir constantly (a little inattention and the semolina can burn) and roast till the semolina turns light brown in colour and emits a wonderful aroma.

(My mom says that when the aroma can be detected from a distance is when the semolina is roasted right).

Once the liquid comes to a boil, slowly pour it into the roasted semolina, stirring constantly. (Careful when pouring as a plume of steam rises up when the milk hits the semolina in the pan).

Stir well and flatten lumps, if any, with the back of the spoon. Then cover the pan and steam on a low heat for about 4-5 minutes.

Stir again, scrapping off any semolina stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then add the sugar, cardamom and nutmeg powders and a pinch of salt. Cover and steam again for another 5 minutes.

Then add in the mashed banana, if using, and give it a good stir. Finally, add a tbsp of ghee, mix well and serve hot.

"Don't feed me baby food!"

I tasted the halwa and did a little celebration dance in the kitchen. It was delicious! I expected him to similarly exult, but he had was a puzzled look on his face. He tasted it and then tasted it again. “Bananas?” he frowned. “Oh I get it. One of your 'make everything healthy – sneak in fruits and vegetables wherever possible' experiments!”

“Experiment? What are you saying....wait a minute....haven't you had sooji ka halwa with bananas before?"

Turned out that indeed he had never had it. Yeah, go figure that!

"Whaaaattttt.....you are not really serious, are you?"

Even with the bananas, he did relish the sooji ka halwa but halfway through his serving, there came on his face a look of complete disbelief and a mild disgust. He was looking at my bowl as if a cockroach had fallen into the bowl! But the only thing that was there in my bowl was some mango pickle. He simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.....halwa with pickle? I was equally perplexed at his disbelief. I mean how can anyone not like sooji ka halwa with mango pickle?

It is without doubt the best way of enjoying the halwa – in a spoonful, there is a medley of flavours – the sweet halwa, the sour and spicy pickle and the gentle whiff of bananas – all coming together in a taste experience that is tongue tickling and unlike any other.

So, the next time you make sooji ka halwa, forget garnishing it with almonds and cashewnuts. Use some pickle instead. You’ll love it, I promise.

This is my entry to Sharmi's CFK - Festive Foods that Suma is hosting this month.

Methi Bhaat (Spiced Fenugreek Rice)

2010-10-23T04:22:00.002+02:00

Sukanya sighed and looked at her watch for the umpteenth time, as if looking at the watch innumerable times would make the train miraculously roll into the platform.

Her day had begun badly enough; it seemed it would end no better.

She had been chasing time all day today - she had woken up late in the morning and was therefore late getting in to work. Consequently, she had had to leave later than she usually did. Now with the trains running late, there was no way she would get home before 8.30 tonight.

She had been feeling unusually exhausted all day making her wonder she had caught some bug. All she wanted to do was just curl up and sleep, but knew that was not to be. She was all too aware of the dinner that had to be made and some other sundry chores that had to be attended to at home.

She looked at her watch once again and sighed deeply as she looked at the swelling crowd on the platform; with every second more and more people seemed to be waiting on the platform. She sighed once again, mentally resigning herself to standing for a better part of her 75 minute journey back home.

A few more minutes of waiting and finally the train rolled in. As expected, she could not find a seat but managed to find a toehold beside the train doors. It was certainly a little unsafe but at least she would get some cool breeze on her face and some fresh air to breathe in – that was immeasurably better than being crushed between sweaty bodies or having someone’s smelly armpit shoved in her face!

Normally, she would chit-chat with her friends - she had made friends with several women who travelled on the same train as her every evening. However, today she simply rested her head on the door and closed her eyes reflecting, with a little despondency, on the rut her life seemed to be stuck in.

She was roused out of her thoughts by someone’s cheerful ‘hi Sukanya’. Opening her eyes, she saw a face that looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite recollect the young girl’s name or where she had met her.

“Remember me? Naina….we met at the Diwali party a few months ago….”

Of course, now she remembered. Naina was married to someone….now what was his name……who worked in the same company as her husband. She now remembered being introduced to her.

She smiled, “You looked so different in all the finery that I couldn’t place you at all. How are you and your husband….umm…Sameer?”

“Can’t blame you….I’ve changed my hairstyle soon after. But I think we’ll meet often now that we’ve moved somewhere very close to your building. Do you always take the 6.13?”

“Yes,” said Sukanya, smiling at Naina’s exuberance. “So where do you….,” she wanted to ask her where she worked but was interrupted by the ringing of Naina’s cell phone.

‘Think another 50 minutes.’
‘Hmmm….’
‘Baingan bharta? Ok. But don’t roast the baingan on the gas, the whole house will get smoky. Use the oven. And listen…..’

“Shit....the network’s gone!” she said suddenly with a mild note of irritation as she tried to call back.

Sukanya hadn’t meant to eavesdrop but Naina was talking loudly enough for everyone in the compartment to listen. Probably giving instructions to her cook, she thought to herself. High time I employed one too. At 45, age is starting to creep up on me - I do tire easily these days. Maybe I should ask Naina for the number of her cook, no matter the resistance from the husband.

“Your cook?” she asked Naina who had given up dialing the number but was turning the phone this way and that over everybody’s heads in the cramped compartment in an attempt to get the signal back.

“Cook!” she exclaimed incredulously. “I don’t employ one – well I used to but that was over 4 years ago. Actually that was Sameer asking me what to prepare for dinner tonight.”

“Sameer cooks? That is great. Lucky you.”

“Well, he can’t really cook….neither can I, but we manage. And no, he is the one who is lucky. After all, I work too and I also have to travel to work every single day, unlike people like Sameer and your husband whose office is so close to their homes. They are the lucky ones, I say!”

Sukanya merely smiled but she couldn’t help but feel a just a teeny bit jealous of Naina. Mine can’t even make tea…..he wouldn’t even if he could, she thought a little bitterly. He was one of those who believed that cooking and other housework were solely a woman’s responsibility. If only he were a little sensitive to her travails. Like today for example. It was so easy for him to ask me to make methi bhaat at dinner. “It’s been so long since you last made it. You know how much I like it,” he had complained.

They all loved methi bhaat, but separating the leaves from their stalks was a lot of work and she would have much preferred to do it over the weekend while watching T.V. However, her protestations about how tiresome and time consuming it was to separate the leaves from the stalks was greeted with some whining of how he never demanded anything elaborate from her at dinner. “And I don’t understand why can’t you do that in the train on your way back?”

She glanced at the bundles of methi leaves in the bag that she had been unable to sort standing in the crowded train. She would have to do it all at home, she looked at her watch and estimated she would be home in another 20 minutes.

When she reached home, her husband was sprawled on the sofa watching cricket on the T.V., his feet on the coffee table. “You are late today….trains, huh? Just make the dinner quickly, I am really very hungry,” he said through a mouthful of chivda.

She shook her head in resignation and put the methi bundles in the kitchen. She was very quick in the kitchen and reckoned she would have the dinner ready in under an hour but she needed to take a shower before she began cooking.

She passed her son’s room on the way to her own. She peeped in; her son was glued to the computer playing some game. “Oh mom, you spoiled my game,” he said. Just at that instant, she heard her husband exult ‘great shot.’

Something in her snapped at that moment. Like father, like son, she thought. No one was bothered to even offer her a cup of tea or ask her how her day was.

“Aniket, I am going to take a shower. In the meantime, go to the kitchen and cook some rice and boil some potatoes too,” she said, much to her son’s horror.
“Mom, not me, I don’t even know how to…”
“You are 17 and old enough to learn. I’ll tell you what to do.”
“Mom….,” he stopped mid-sentence, realizing she would not accept any argument.

There was nothing she could do to change her husband’s attitude – it was too late for that, but it was high time she influenced the way her son turned out, she thought as she headed into the shower.

The suburban train network in Mumbai is its lifeline and is the quickest way to get from one end of the city to the other. There are some people who travel for as little as 15 minutes and there are others who travel almost 2 hours one way to get to their place of work. In the evenings, they are back in the train for the same length of time.

The trains are also very crowded; at peak hours, it is not unusual to find people hanging out of its doors, sometimes, you even find some perched on the roof of the compartments. In many ways, the suburban train travel in Mumbai is a great leveller - no matter what your occupation, no matter the money you earn, at the end of the day, you are

People have found many ways to keep themselves occupied - other than chatting and reading and sleeping, there are groups who sing bhajans or play cards to while away the time.

But it is in the ladies' compartments that you really get to witness glimpses of people's lives, their joys and their struggles. The chatter is endless; most of the times, there is laughter and occasionally, fierce arguments too. But beneath all the chatter is the anxiety and eagerness to get home as soon as possible to attend to the children and other chores. The women do much more than just chat or play cards or sing bhajans - they use their time in the train far more productively - it is not unusual to see women knitting, their needles going clicketty clack, or even cleaning some vegetables in preparation for dinner.

The story of just another day in Sukanya's life which is my (again very late) entry to Of Chalks and Chopsticks that PJ is hosting is based on the small nuggets of conversations gleaned from my train travels many moons ago.

Methi Bhaat/ Rice with Fenugreek leaves

Ingredients:

Onion: 1 large, finely chopped
Tomato: 2, chopped
Garlic: 7-8 cloves, choppped
Boiled potatoes/sweet potatoes: 1/2 cup
Methi/Fenugreek leaves: 2.5 cups, washed and chopped
Dry spices: Turmeric, red chilli powder, garam masala
Jaggery: 1 tbsp
Salt
Oil

Rice: 1.5 cups, cooked and cooled completely

Method:

Cut the boiled sweet potato into cubes. Grease a frying pan with some cooking spray and lightly fry the cubes till brown. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok and add in the chopped garlic. Saute till the garlic turns brown.

Then toss in the onions and fry till they turn pink. Next, add in the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes become soft and mushy. Add in the dry spices, the jaggery and the salt.

Add in the methi leaves and turn up the heat. Stir constantly till the leaves are cooked, about 4- 5 minutes. Then add the fried potatoes and mix well.

Add in the cold rice into the vegetable mixture and gently stir till all the grains are evenly coated with the vegetable mixture. Cover and steam on a very low heat, stirring occasionally till the rice is heated through.

Serve with some yogurt and papad.

Tiramisu

2010-10-16T17:51:00.002+02:00

This post was written almost as soon as we returned from our vacation, yet it has taken me 2 weeks just to upload the picture and finally publish the post. If this is not the absolute height of laziness and lethargy, I wonder what is!

Now, I would love to claim that this recipe was shared by an Italian chef or that it is the authentic recipe of making the tiramisu.

But having gone to the country where the tiramisu was invented and having eaten it almost every single day, I can definitely aver that this recipe results in a tiramisu that is as good as if not better (yes, I actually said that!) than the ones we ate in Italy.

I have tried numerous recipes for making tiramisu but the one I made from Cooking for Engineers makes the most fantastic tiramisu I've ever eaten. First of all, it doesn't use raw eggs, instead the egg yolks are cooked into a custard.

Light yet delectably creamy, it is has a perfect melt in your mouth feel. But most importantly, it is not cloyingly sweet and the balance of flavour between the coffee and the alcohol is just right.

I have made a few modifications to the original recipe; here's my version.

Ingredients:

for the zabaglione:
Egg yolks: 4
Sugar: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps
Marsala wine: 1/2 cup

Mascarpone cheese: 500 gms

Heavy cream: 250 ml

for the dipping mixture
Espresso: 1 1/4 cup
Marsala wine: 3 tbsps

Ladyfinger/savoiardi cookies
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup

Method:

Whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar till pale and lemony in colour. Add in the Marsala wine and whisk a few minutes more.

While you are whisking the yolks, bring some water to boil in a saucepan (this saucepan should be a size smaller than the one you are whisking the egg yolks in. I fill the saucepan halfway through with water).

Once the water comes to a boil, reduce the flame so that the water is barely simmering and then set the bowl containing the whisked yolks on top and stir continuously till the mixture starts to thicken and bubble around the edges. Set aside and let it cool completely.

(the first time I did this, I ended up with something that looked like crumbed paneer - which meant that my egg mixture had started to cook. So now, whenever I make the egg custard, I keep a deep plate filled with chilled water - the minute I think the mixture is starting to overheat, I plonk the bowl into the chilled water to prevent the eggs from cooking).

Next, whip the cream to get stiff peaks. Also, beat the mascarpone cheese till it is smooth. Then pour the zabaglione into the cheese and beat to get a homogenous mixture. Fold in the whipped cream into the cheese mixture in 3 quick additions.

Assembling the tiramisu:

Mix together the espresso and the marsala. (If you find the espresso too strong for your liking, dilute it with some warm water but don't use sugar to counter the bitterness. Sugar in the espresso is an absolute no - no).

I use my 9" springform pan for assembling the tiramisu.

Working quickly, dip the ladyfinger cookies in the espesso mixture and lay them in a single layer over the bottom of the pan. I dip only one side - the plain side - of the cookies in the espresso and place them sugar side up in the pan. These cookies are very delicate and so don't dip them for longer than a second in the espresso mixture.

Spoon half the cream mixture over the cookies. Prepare another layer in a similar fashion, cover the pan with a cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours (preferably, refrigerate overnight).

Just before unmolding and serving, dust the top with cocoa powder.

Back to Basics 2: The Round Up

2010-09-12T18:48:00.002+02:00

I have been a very bad hostess for this event. Not only have I posted my entry very late, but some of your entries also went unacknowledged and my sincere apologies for that.

Here's the wealth of information that all the fellow bloggers have shared this time around:

There are a few basic spices that I am sure most kitchens have. Sure, they are easily available in most supermarkets all over the world, but making these at home is not too tough either. Moreover, the fragrance and freshness of homemade spices is incomparable. Don't just take my word for it, go on and take a look at these entries and I am sure you'll agree with me:

Jeera powder
Cumin coconut powder
Spiced chilli powder
Crushed peanuts
Sambhar powder
Rasam podi
Ghee
Roasted cumin seed powder, coriander seed powder, sesame seed powder, roasted coconut paste and raosted groundnut paste

Make these ahead of time, store in a jar and transform the simplest of foods to something absolutely delicious, as if by magic!

Coriander Lentil Spice Mix
Groundnut and sesame powder, lentil and sesame powder, tangy mint powder
Gun powder
Urad Dhal Powder
Milk Masala Powder

I'll admit it, there are certain things I've never made at home but I am now very inspired to make them from scratch:

Paneer
Khoa/Mawa
Yogurt

Have a blender at home? You seriously have no excuse not to make these at home:

Ginger garlic paste
Cilantro Mint chutney
Ginger garlic paste (no this is not a typo!)
Kurukku Kaalan

A blender for a large batch of tomatoes and a grater for a couple of them. Either way, making a silky, smooth tomato puree at home is so simple.

Love to make batata vadas but hate the icky fingers that result from dipping the potato balls in the batter? Use this simple tip and fry batata vadas without getting your hands dirty!

But you don't make batata vadas that often, you say. But I am pretty sure you would be making dal very often. And while there are many ways of making dal, this is one of the easier ways of making it.

And finally, did you ever think you could jazz up a simple glass of water? I was so excited when I read this tip that I promptly went and jazzed up my vodka. Water, vodka....the possibilities are immense!

So there you are tips and tricks to make cooking and eating simpler, easier, healthier and yes, cheaper.

I will be on a break starting Tuesday till the end of the month, but leave me a comment if I have missed your entry in the round up and I will add it in as soon as I can.

Milk Masala Powder

2010-09-12T18:18:00.004+02:00

Even though I am on the wrong side of 30, there are certain times when I crave a glass of milk at night. The catch, however, is that I cannot stand the sight of white milk. So sometimes, I add a bit of rose syrup or drinking chocolate or even turmeric powder to the milk. Nowadays, I've started making a small batch of this milk masala. Not only is it tasty, it also means I consume nuts on a regular basis.

To make the milk masala, simply grind to a coarse powder 2 tbsps of pistachios, 1 tbsp of almonds, 1 tbsp of cashewnuts, 15 nos of cardamom and 2 tbsps of sugar. Add a pinch of saffron and store it in the refrigerator.

Not only can you use the milk masala in a glass of warm milk, you can also add it to enhance the taste of your payasams and kulfis and sooji ka halwa/sheera.

This is my very very late entry to Back To Basics -2, a brilliant event started by Jaya that I am hosting this month.

Just a few extra chilies?

2010-09-09T12:55:00.007+02:00

She was setting foot in this city after a decade. The city that held some of her best memories and all of her worst ones as well. The city where she had met the love of her life and then lost him. The city she had sworn she would never return to.

And yet, here she was. The lure of meeting her classmates had made her come back. After all, she had spent 2 amazing and fun-filled years with them studying for her MBA. True, she had not been in touch with any of them in the intervening years, but when she read about the upcoming reunion in the papers, she couldn’t resist coming over.

Did she imagine it or was there really that small moment when everyone stopped doing what they were doing as she entered the party hall? “Oh my God! Look who’s here?” shrieked Seema as she welcomed her with a tight hug. Soon, there were more hugs and hi –fives, some smiles and some tears too.

Of course, there were questions. Where was she all these years and what had she been doing? And there were the recriminations. Why had she left without even saying goodbye? Why hadn’t she kept in touch with anyone of them – not even her closest friends?

She had known that there would be questions and recriminations, she had known that she would have some explaining to do – especially to those few friends she had been close to but she hadn’t realized how overwhelmingly difficult it was to talk about herself and the emotional upheaval she had been through. Moreover, it was never going to be easy telling her friends that she had spent a better part of the last 10 years in psychiatric care. So she just hemmed and hawed about working in the family business before steering the conversation back to her friends and their lives.

That wasn’t easy either. For while everyone would animatedly discuss their spouses and children with each other, conversations would come to an awkward end the moment she was in the group. And moreover, the big questions that she was sure were on everyone’s mind – whether she was married or whether there was anyone in her life – were never voiced. They stayed suspended in the pity-filled glances that were occasionally cast her way.

Wanting to get away from it all, she found herself a quiet corner at the bar and sipped on a Margarita.

“Hey Ankita…..mind if I join you? asked Akash. One of Raj’s closest friends. The one who always used to hover around Raj and herself. Kebab mein haddi, she used to call him. It infuriated her then, now the memory merely brought a smile to her lips.

“You didn’t keep in touch with me either”, he chided. “And I thought I was your friend too. But you cut me off from your life, just as you did your other friends. I looked for you….but even your parents were tight-lipped. Look Anks…..”

“Don’t you dare call me that”, she said angrily.

“Okay, okay just cool it. But this I will say - you’ve got to get over him. Move on, for your own sake”.

“Stop sermonizing Akash. Just let’s have our drink peacefully”.

“Ankita, look I don’t know how to say this but can you make me a part of your life? You don’t know this but I ….umm….have always loved you”.

That was the last straw – Akash in love with her?! She hadn’t come here for this!

“Akash, just leave me alone. Just get out of here before I scream and embarrass both you and me”, she said tersely.

She was now starting to feel suffocated and decided that she had to get away. When everyone started dancing to music from the 80s, she slipped away, once again without saying goodbye to anyone.

The night was cool and a light breeze had picked up. The traffic had died down and the streets were starting to get quieter. She started walking, aimlessly at first but soon found her feet leading her to the University chowk, that place where Raj and she had spent many of their evenings together. That place where Raj had left her that balmy May night.

She almost didn’t recognize the place. Where was the several metres high fountain? Where was the University circle? And where were the hawkers selling food? She stared at the place in absolute disbelief. Cities transform with time but here one of the iconic places had been razed to the ground!

She squeezed her eyes shut picturing the place as it used to be, as it was that night. The fountain and the milky white water that was spouting from it, the cacophony of horns around the roundabout and the many vehicles and two wheelers parked on either side of the road. People of all shapes and sizes and ages in groups or alone wondering what to eat – dosas, egg bhurji, vada pavs, chaat or Chinese food – they were spoilt for choice. The hissing of the stoves and clanging of spoons on the huge woks. The air redolent with the smell of food and more food.

At the far end and outside a slightly quieter Chinese food stall, Raj was waiting for her. With him, as always, was Akash. That day, something inside her had snapped and she grew extremely irritated at Akash's presence. She liked spending time alone with Raj but Akash never seemed to care about that. Almost involuntarily, she gave him one nasty look which made him scamper away without even touching the spring rolls he had ordered or taking that cola bottle he always seemed to have with him.

“Anks, he is my friend….can’t you be a little accommodating?” Raj said with a bit of edge in his voice.

“But he is always hovering around us. I hardly get any time alone with you”, she complained.

And they had gotten into a tiff arguing about every little thing till Raj finally burst out saying, “Just don’t talk to me”.

“You either”, she said.

Soon, the hawker came with their order of two hakka noodles and as was often the case, he too put the extra –spicy one in front of Raj while she was served the mild one. Why did people always assume that being a woman, she would be the one eating the mildly spiced noodles, she wondered. In fact, it was Raj who could not take chillies at all.

“Raj…”, she began wanting to swap the plates with him.

“I told you, DON’T TALK TO ME”.

Very well, she thought to herself. One bite and you will be yelping and I will watch the fun!

“What the hell….why didn’t you tell me”, he growled after the first mouthful as he reached for the cola bottle Akash had left behind. She started giggling at his discomfort from eating the spicy noodles and it infuriated him further. “Even this cola is tasting weird”, he remarked as he finished the entire 750ml. He then picked up his bike keys and started to leave. A small fight had taken an ugly turn.

She tried to stop him but he didn’t want any of it. Well, she wasn’t going to grovel either. She nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and started twirling the greasy and spicy noodles around the plastic fork.

She hadn’t even finished swallowing her first mouthful when there was a loud screech of brakes…funny how sometimes you knew certain things without being told. She just knew that it was Raj who was lying beneath the wheel of the bus.

Even after 10 years, she was unable to erase that picture from her mind. She sank to her feet and wept….she had never, in her wildest imagination, thought that a few extra chillies in a plate of noodles could change her life forever. Everyone kept telling her not to blame herself, but she had never stopped feeling responsible for Raj’s death.

Somewhere else in the city, Akash was sitting on a lonely bench calling out Ankita’s name. How he wished he could take her pain away! In his hand was a bottle of cola that he kept taking huge swigs from. It was spiked with a generous amount of rum.

Just as it was that night 10 years ago.

His plan was to get teetotaler Raj completely drunk and watch him make a fool of himself in front of Ankita. But seeing her displeasure at his presence, he had rushed off, forgetting to take that cola bottle with him..…….

This is my entry to Of Chalks and Chopsticks that Jaya is hosting this month. Very graciously, she has allowed this very late entry. Thanks!

However, I do not have a recipe this time. Well no, I do have the recipe but don't have a photo to go along. So I will post it some other time, but in the meantime, you can hop on over to Soma's fabulous blog from where I made the Hakka Noodles that I wanted to post alongwith this story.

Mango Salsa

2010-08-23T17:57:00.001+02:00

Most of us travel in a set manner - visit a place, take in the sights and return back home. Our travels are for a fixed time duration at the end of which we have that desire to go back home and sleep in our own beds.

There are a few people, however, who travel for years together, moving from one place to another. With no fixed address and with no fixed travel route, they seem to live the life of a nomad. Meet one such nomad - Rita Golden Gelman.

A woman who has travelled the world over the past 15 odd years moving from one country to another with no possessions other than those that she can carry in her backpack. A woman for who the end of a 23 year old marriage marked the beginning of an entirely new way of life.

Yes, this is about the book thye book club read this month - Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman, a collection of essays detailing her travel experiences from around the world.

From staying in a Zapotec village, studying orangutans deep in the jungles in Borneo, finding spiritual enlightenment in Bali, trekking in Irian Jaya, seeking her roots in Israel to simply living in New Zealand, her travel experiences are phenomenal and often, not something that many of us would be able to or willing to imitate.

She goes from feeling vulnerable at having to travel and eat alone to being supremely confident in the seeking company of fellow travellers on the road. She never lets an opportunity to savour newer experiences slip by her; often times, she employs absolute ingenuity in creating opportunities for herself.

However, the sense of wonder and awe that one normally has when visiting new places (and especially those that are often not accessible to many travellers) is not there in the book. That is because this is not really a travelogue. So, don't read it if what you are looking for is a travelogue in the classic sense. She doesn't really describe or wax eloquent about the places she has been to.

Travels of a Female Nomad is more about how Gelman made her way into people's homes and then their hearts, her interactions with people and her response to the diverse cultures she encountered.

But more than anything else, it is a testament to the fact that it is never to late to live the life that you truly want to lead. As you flip the pages, you start to share her conviction that most of the times, if you only open your heart and mind to people, place your trust in them and simply go with the flow, life's experiences can be very enjoyable.

For that and that alone, this is a book that is a must read.

For some reason, from the time I started reading about her trip to Mexico, I was hoping there'd be some mango salsa somewhere in the book. There was none, but toward the end of the book, there was this salad that she made in Thailand.

So this is what I made: A mango salsa with a hint of Thai flavours.

Just cut some mangoes into cubes and slice some shallots and red chillies as well. Toss them in a dressing made with a few tbsps of pineapple juice, lime juice and salt. Garnish with some fresh coriander leaves and thinly shredded basil leaves and kaffir limes.

Serve this alongside some grilled chicken; I loved having it with some curd rice.

This is my entry to Yameen's Health Nut Challenge 7 : Tropical Fruits.

Vegetable Biryani

2010-08-15T13:29:00.000+02:00

Simply put, biryani is nothing but rice layered alternately with meat or fish or even vegetables. The taste, however, is anything but simple to describe. Aromatic from the use of saffron and rose water, subtly flavoured from the sprinkling of spices, biryani is a one pot meal that is extremlely satiating.

True, making biryani is time-consuming. There are spices to be ground and onions to be fried; there are many small steps that make their way to a delicious biryani and absolutely no room for any short cuts. But one whiff of the cooked biryani and all the effort taken and the time spent in making it seem totally worth it.

Biryani is a crowd pleaser and this vegetable biryani is something that gets made very often, especially when we are entertaining. It has taken me numerous attempts and many a charred vessels to get finally get it right, here's how I make it.

Ingredients:

Rice: 1 1/4 cup
Assorted Vegetables: 1 1/2 cups ( I use carrots, cauliflower, french beans and green peas)
Paneer: 1/2 cup

Tomato Puree: 2 tbsps

Yogurt: 1/3 cup
Cashewnut powder: 2 1/2 tbsps
Dry spices: Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp, turmeric - 1/4 tsp, garam masala - 1 tbsp, salt to taste

Whole spices: bay leaf - 1, cloves - 6, cinnamon - 1" stick, black cardamom - 1

Raisins: 1 tbsp
Saffron: 1 pinch, soaked in 1 tsp rosewater and 1 tsp kewra water

Ghee: 2 - 3 tbsps
Oil: 2 tbsps + as required for deep frying

grind to a paste:

Onion: 2 medium sized
Mint leaves: 1/3 cup
Coriander leaves: 6 sprigs
Garlic: 6 cloves
Ginger: 1" piece

for garnishing:

Potato: 1 large
Onion: 1 large, sliced
a few mint leaves
green chillies

Method:

pre-preparation:

Peel and slice one onion. Toss the slices in a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp sugar. Deep fry till golden brown.

Peel and cut the potato into 1/4" thick circles and fry till golden.

cook the rice:

Soak the rice in water for half an hour. Heat ghee in a vessel, add the black cardamom followed by the strained rice. Fry gently till the grains are all coated with the ghee. Add 2 cups boiling water and some salt and cook the rice.

Once cooked, fluff with a fork and spread it onto a plate to cool.

prepare the vegetable curry:

Cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and steam till they are just cooked.

Grind the masala paste. Heat oil and add the whole garam masala. Let it sizzle for half a minute and then add the masala paste to the pan, fry till the raw smell disappears.

Add in the tomato puree and fry another 5 - 7 minutes. Sprinkle a few drops of water if the puree sticks to the pan. Whisk together the yogurt, cashewnut powder and the dry spices; fry till the oil separates.

Mix the steamed vegetables, the paneer cubes and the raisins into the fried masala paste and toss gently for about 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle a little water if the curry sticks to the bottom of the pan.

assemble the biryani

In a heavy bottomed vessel, melt some ghee.

Spread half the rice. On top of the rice, sprinkle a pinch of the garam masala followed by 1/4 of the fried onions. A few mint leaves and whole green chillies go next.

Then spread the cooked vegetable curry followed by the remaining rice.

Pour the saffron water over the rice. Layer the fried potatoes on the rice, sprinkle the remaining fried onions, some mint leaves and whole green chillies.

Seal the vessel with 2-3 layers of aluminium foil and cover with a tight fitting lid.

Place a frying pan on the gas and put the vessel that you just layered the biryani in on top of the pan. On the lowest possible heat setting, cook the biryani for about 25- 30 minutes. (Putting the vessel atop a pan and then heating the biryani ensures that the rice won't stick to the bottom and get charred).

Alternately, you could also layer the biryani in a similar fashion in a microwave proof bowl and microwave on high for about 10 mins. But the aroma of the stove-top method is something the microwave method simply cannot replicate.

I serve with the biryani with this eggplant raita and some papad. Finger licking good.

Announcing Back To Basics

2010-08-12T09:12:00.001+02:00

There was a time when my kitchen was lined with bottles and jars containing fresh and homemade podis and masalas and pickles and yes, ghee.

But that was many years ago when we lived in Bombay and made monthly trips to Pune; with every trip, we'd return with the choicest of home-made goodies that my mother and MIL would gladly prepare for us.

Then, we moved overseas. And while I armed myself with all the recipes, I never used any of them. I have been purchasing most of my basic masalas and podis and the like for many years now.

I was, however, nudged to look up all those recipes when last month Jaya came up with an event called Back to Basics. One look at the round up and I realised that this was an event that could equip everyone (well, yes, I do have my own very selfish interest here) with many tips and tricks to make cooking and eating simpler, easier and healthier.

I was glad when Jaya decided to continue with the event and I am delighted to be hosting it this month.

Here's what this event encompasses (and this is from the original event announcement):

1. How to and tips on how you make your life easier in the kitchen, by grinding pastes or freezing seasonal fruits and vegetables.

2. Recipes for rubs, marinades and masalas: garam masala, goda masala, dhana jeera powder (corrainder cumin), etc.

3. Posts like Srivalli's 'cooking toor dal for the week and storing in the fridge'.

4. Recipes for concentrates like this lemon concentrate used to make lemonade.

5. A food recipe that goes with the above is totally optional but welcome.

6. All recipes need to be original; if yours is inspired by any other in the blogosphere, do provide a link for the same.

7. Link your post to Jaya's post and my event announcement and send me the URL of your post either by sending me a mail on aquadaze{at}rediffmail{dot}com or by leaving a comment at the end of this post.

8. Archived entries are welcome, please do update them with the links mentioned in point 7 above.

9. Don't have a blog but have lots of tips and tricks up your sleeve? Do mail them to me on the e-mail address mentioned above.

Last date for sending in your entries: Sept. 8.

Looking forward to your entries......

Strawberry Mirror Cake

2010-08-07T01:59:00.005+02:00

I am not one given to using superlatives like 'the best ever' about any recipe that I have blogged about. And I want to refrain from doing so even today.

However, when it comes to this Strawberry Mirror Cake, the superlative is difficult to avoid. But I don't want to hazard claiming that this is the best dessert ever and so I will just stop at saying that this is the best dessert that I can whip up. Not only is it gorgeous and elegant looking, it tastes better than it looks. Go on, drool over that slice.....

A few years ago, we were invited for dinner at a friend's place. Now, I am a dessert-first kind of person but I refused the dessert that day. Because for dessert was (a very delicious looking) strawberry mousse and mousse normally has raw eggs in it and I don't eat raw eggs.

"This doesn't have any eggs. In fact, it is made from - you won't believe it - ice cream and jelly!"

The mousse was fantastic and I just had to have the recipe. However, my recipe request was firmly turned down. "No sharing of recipes is going to happen," she said.

What friends don't share, Google happily does. I wasted no time in surfing the net, tried a few recipes; the one I stumbled upon at the OChef website tasted exactly like the one she had made.

A very easy dessert to make, the mock Strawberry Bavarian as it appears on OChef is very versatile too. I've made it in cherry and raspberry flavours with equally delicious results.

So, where does the Strawberry Mirror Cake fit into all this ramble, you might wonder. I am coming to it....

When I started blogging, I came across this group that calls itself 'the Daring Bakers'. One day, while browsing through one such intrepid blogger Sunita's blog, I came across the stunning Strawberry Mirror Cake and borrowed the basic presentation idea there to make mine.

My Strawberry Mirror Cake is a fusion of 3 different recipes. It might, by the look and sound of it, seem complicated but I can assure you that it is not so. And the end result is more than worth all the effort, both in terms of the way it looks and tastes.

I hope rather long recipe doesn't put you off - in any case, there are only 4 main steps; what you need to do is simply organise the steps.

Here's how I make it:

I start by baking the sponge cake.

Ingredients:

Eggs: 4
Sugar: 120 gms
Cake flour: 100 gms
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Butter: 65 gms, melted

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 175 deg C.

Cream together the eggs and sugar till they are pale, light and creamy and the mixture falls in ribbons, about 10 mins. Sprinkle the flour and fold it into the egg sugar mixture with the help of a spatula. I do this in 3 additions. Beat this egg-sugar-flour mixture till it falls in ribbons again, about 1o - 12 mins. Finally, fold in the melted butter.

Bake in a greased 8" round cake pan for about 30-35 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave on the wire rack till it cools completely. Once cool, slice into 2.

While the cake bakes, set about preparing the strawberry juice for the mirror and for moistening the cake.

Ingredients:

Strawberries: 680 gms
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: 1 cup
Lime juice: 1/2 tsp

Method:

Wash and hull the strawberries. Mash them with your hands or with the back of a spoon; sprinkle sugar over them and drizzle the lime juice. Set aside for about 15-20 mins so that the juices start to flow.

Place over low heat, add the water and simmer for about 10 mins. Strain through a fine sieve or preferably a cheesecloth and let drain for about 15-20 mins.

Reserve 1.5 cups for the mirror and use the rest for moistening the cake.

Now that the pre-preparation is through, move on to making the mock strawberry bavarian

Ingredients:

Strawberry-flavored gelatin: 7.5 ounces/225 gms
Boiling water: 2 1/2 cups
Sour cream: 1 1/4 cup
Vanilla ice cream : 600 ml (the original recipe uses strawberry ice cream)
Lemon juice: 1 1/4 tbsp
Strawberries: 250 gms, chopped

A large bowl of ice

Method:

Place the jelly in a bowl and add the boiling water to it. Stir till the crystals dissolve. To this, add the sour cream and whisk until smooth.

Next add in the ice cream and mix until the ice cream has melted. Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the chopped strawberries.

Place the vessel over a bowl of ice and stir till the mixture just starts to thicken. Once that happens, take the bowl off the ice (don't throw away the ice, you are going to need it for the mirror) and start to assemble the gateau:

In a 10" springform pan, place one half of the cake. Drizzle some strawberry juice to moisten the cake. Layer half of the bavarian on top of the cake and refrigerate for 15 mins.

Repeat with the other layer of the cake and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

This is the last step, making the strawberry mirror.

Ingredients:

Strawberry juice: 1.5 cups (yes, the one we set aside earlier)
Lemon juice: 1 tsp
Kirsh: 1 tbsp (I omit this)
Water: 1 tbsp (I use 2 tbsps)
Unflavoured gelatin: 1 tbsp
A few drops red food colouring (I omit this)

Method:

Place the lemon juice and water in a bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the mixture and aside till the gelatin becomes soft and spongy.

Meanwhile, bring the juice to a simmer and pour it over the gelatin mixture. Stir to dissolve the gelatin. Add the colouring, if using.

Now place the mixture over a bowl of ice and stir till the mixture is syrupy and starts to thicken. As soon as it starts to thicken, remove the bowl from the ice. Scoop off any bubbles that may have formed while stirring and pour it over the top layer of the bavarian.

Refrigerate until the jelly sets.

To unmold, blow your hairdryer (YES! ) on its lowest setting all around the outside of the springform pan (you could even use a warm towel and run that on the outside of the pan) Then, run a spatula around the edge of the jelly to gently separate it from the sides of the pan - this step is most critical as the mirror could tear if it is stuck to the pan when you unlatch it.

The Strawberry Mirror Cake is a fitting end to a dinner party and so I am taking it along to Nupur's Potluck Party (the theme for this month's BB6).

Laadi Pav

2010-07-31T12:46:00.002+02:00

The following is my entry to our food fiction event Of Chalks and Chopsticks that Sra is hosting this month.

No one – not our parents, not our closest friends, not even ourselves – could have predicted this. After all, we had always been a ‘solid’ couple. And yet here we were, separating after 8 years of marriage, sorting through our things and deciding who would keep what.

Part of me didn’t want this to happen, but somewhere, I realised that Yash was right – there was no point in living together under the same roof as strangers.

Strangers? Yash and I? Even the mere suggestion seemed ridiculous! We weren’t ‘strangers’ to each other even when we met for the first time in catering college. Though it wasn’t ‘love at first sight’ kind of a thing, we had hit it off very well and so, it was only a matter of time before we became a couple.

I glanced at him as he sorted through our huge CD collection. “Tell you what, you keep all of them. I am just taking a few. In any case I have a huge collection of songs on my I-pod,” he smiles. I nodded and walked away, trying not to step on all the stuff scattered all over the floor – stuff that held our memories – memories of better times. We were so happy together, I remembered. What went wrong? Just when did we become ‘strangers’, I wondered.

Yash kept coming and asking what to do with some of the stuff, but mostly, I left him alone. I was not too interested in what he took and what he left. After all, I was hardly home and when I was, I was mostly sleeping. My job as a chef at a world renowned restaurant took up most of my time and all of my energy.

I’d had to work very hard to get to where I was. It is ironical that though women are the ones who cook at home all over the world, in restaurants, it is a completely different story. Most top chefs are men and it is quite difficult for a woman to break through the glass ceiling. I was very proud of what I had achieved; in fact I was very proud of what Yash had achieved as well – his food based travel program was immensely popular.

Success hadn’t come very easily for us and the early days had been excruciating but on hindsight, we survived them because we had each other. Whenever Yash would be back from his travels, I’d have some fancy ‘welcome back’ cake baked for him. And ever so often, he’d whisk me off for a short vacation when he was travelling. Every free minute and we'd be on the phone or on the chat with each other. Somewhere along the way though, cakes, spontaneous getaways and chats gave way small matter-of fact post-its – “there’s some soup in the fridge for you” or “will be back on the 18th and going away the next day.” Strangers? Worse, it seemed! Most days, we hardly had anything to say to each other.

My thoughts were interrupted when my eyes fell on Yash who was leafing through a book. The book. The one in which we had written about our dream of starting a restaurant. The book had everything – the concept of our restaurant : a meeting place for writers and artists, the look: wooden floors and cozy sofas that people could sink into with bookcases and paintings across the walls, the menu: complete with the recipes we had experimented on.

A dream that seemed destined to be confined to the pages of the book. Forever.

Chancing upon the book after ages seemed to break the silence between us and we smiled at each other as we started talking about the time that was. And soon, we were talking about everything under the sun. Ourselves, work, politics. We stopped talking only when we realised that the afternoon had turned to dusk.

“Let me make us some tea,” he said. “Is there anything to eat?” So while he made tea, I pulled out some cookies and buttered a couple of slices of bread.

He handed me my mug and as I bit into the bread that I had dipped into my tea, I said “No one can make bread the way you used to make it.”

“What do you mean ‘used to make’? No one can make bread the way I do. Period.”

“Don’t flatter yourself! It’s been ages since you made bread.”

“Making bread is like riding a cycle. You never forget it,” he proclaimed. “Wanna see? I will bake you a bread you’ll remember,” he continued.

And so, I mixed the yeast and the sugar in some warm water, I measured out the flour and Yash started kneading the dough. Suddenly, it felt like the old times when we used to cook together.

“There is not too much space on the counter to knead the dough,” he says. “Let’s quickly vacuum the floor. Then I can knead it on the floor.”

“Whaaaaaat? And make laadi pav in the true sense of the word?” I was horrified by his suggestion.

“Oh stop behaving like a posh chef at home,” he teased with a smile that went straight to my heart. I was almost tempted to tell him not to go, when his cell phone rang. He had dough sticking to his fingers and so I held the phone against his ears, almost unable to bear the closeness.

“Yes, yes. 11 is fine.” “No, no, there isn’t too much to move. Yes, a small tempo should be ok,” he spoke into the phone.

When the call was over, we looked at each other silently for a moment and then I slipped out of the kitchen. He continued to knead; occasionally, I could hear a thud as he dropped the dough on the platform. Job done, he joined me in the balcony.

“Care for some wine?” he asked, finally breaking the awkward silence between us. In the time it took for the dough to rise, we’d polished off one bottle. While he shaped the buns, I opened another; by the time he put them in the oven, we had drained the second one too.

I wondered if it was the wine or the music or whatever else. I didn’t even remember who made the first move, but suddenly, we were in each other’s arms, kissing.

The ‘ting’ of the oven brought us back to reality. I went and checked the bread. It had this lovely brown crust and it was so soft and spongy that when I pressed it between my fingers, it sprung right back. I brought it to my nose and inhaled; the aroma filled me up.

“Perfect. I will always remember this bread,” I said as I went into the bedroom and closed the door behind me.

When I woke up, it was almost 10 in the morning. The movers would be coming soon, I thought. There was no sign of Yash; when I went to the kitchen to make coffee, I saw the post-it on on the fridge: Off to finish a project I should have taken up years ago. Will arrange to move everything once I am done.

I had fallen in love with Yash all over again and I missed him terribly but work kept me from brooding too much. Then one day, to my shock, I found him waiting for me at home when I returned at night. Laid out on the table were some legal looking papers – our divorce papers, I thought with a pang.

He started talking the moment he saw me, “I got stuck at the name. Other than that, in the last 3 months, I’ve done all the work on our restaurant.”

Our restaurant? What was he saying? I looked at the ‘legal looking’ papers – they were about a restaurant – our restaurant!

“So choose a name….I thought of Canvas, Chalks and Chopsticks. The other one is Plumes, Palettes and Plates….which one do you like?

“Plumes, Palettes and Plates,” I said as I moved into his arms. He continued to fill me in with the details, but all I could hear was the beating of his heart.

So just what is 'laadi pav'? Pav is a marathi word, taken from the Portuguese word pao which simply means bread. It is called 'laadi pav' more because of the way it looks. When baked with all the buns stuck together, it ressembles slabs of the floor and hence the name.

This is one very easy bread to make, I've taken the recipe from Vaishali's blog and except for a few.....ummm.....cosmetic changes, I have followed her recipe to the tee.

Ingredients:

Bread flour: 3 cups
Salt: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 1+ 2tsps
Yeast: 1.5 tsps
Warm water: 1 - 1.5 cups
Butter/oil: 3 tbsps

for brushing the top of the buns:

warm milk: 2 tbsps
melted butter: 1 tbsp

Method:

Stir the yeast and the sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water and let it sit for about 15-20 mins or till it expands and froths

Sift the flour and baking soda together and transfer it to a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and mix it into the flour. Pour the water in thin trickle and begin kneading the dough.

When it clumps together, turn it onto the kitchen counter and knead for a further 10 - 12 mins, till you get a smooth and pliable ball of dough.

Then, sprinkle the salt over the dough and add the butter, a tbsp at a time and knead till all the butter has been absorbed by the dough.

Leave the dough for rising in a well oiled bowl; it takes me about 3 hours for the dough to double.

Then, punch it down and divide it into eight pieces. Shape them into rectangular buns and lay them close to each other on a jam roll pan. Let them rise for another 30 minutes, once this rising time has elapsed, you will see that the gap between the buns has closed out, making the buns stick to each other.

Brush the milk on the top of the buns and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for about 20 mins. Turn off the oven, leave the door slightly ajar and let the buns rest for a further 5 mins.

Take them off and brush the melted butter immediately on top of the buns; doing this ensures that crust remains soft and the buns get a lovely shine.

Eggplant Pizza

2010-07-26T17:51:00.001+02:00

In one of my earlier posts, I had claimed to 'love' eggplants. In retrospect, I now think that that statement was a huge exaggeration.

The truth is that I don't love eggplant per se. I love it only and only when it is cooked in a few ways - eggplant raita and baingan ka bharta - are amongst my favourite ways of having them eggplants. Any other way and I have small moment of hesitation before taking the first bite.

A few months ago, we were served this rather unusual 'eggplant pizza' at a party. Just one bite and I was completely bowled over by the taste. Soon, I was making it very often at home. And why wouldn't I? After all, it makes for an excellent appetizer or a light evening snack - tasty, nutritious and very, very easy to make!

Ingredients:

Eggplant - 1, large

Olive oil - 1 tbsp

Seasonings - salt, pepper and dried garlic flakes

Onion: 1 small, finely chopped

Bell pepper - 1/2, chopped

Grated cheddar cheese - 3-4 tbsps

for the sauce:

Tomatoes - 2 large
Garlic - 1 large clove
Onion - 1 small
Seasonings : Chilli flakes, basil leaves, salt, sugar - to taste
Oil

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C for about 15 minutes.

While the oven pre-heats, prepare the tomato sauce. Blanch the tomatoes and peel the skin. Cut into half, scoop out the seeds and chop it up. Heat oil, saute the garlic and onions for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook till soft. Let it cool and then puree in the mixie.
Return to the pan, add the seasonings and simmer till the sauce thickens.

Cut the eggplant into 1/2" thick circles. Whisk together the oil, dried garlic flakes, salt and pepper. Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with this mixture.

Grill the eggplant for about 5-7 minutes or until you get grill marks.

Turn the slices and spread the tomato sauce on the grilled side. Top with the chopped vegetables and the grated cheese. Return the slices back to the oven and grill for a further 7-8 minutes or till the cheese starts to melt and turn brown.

Now tell me, isn't this an excellent way to have eggplants? Or for that matter, pizza?

Blueberry Pancakes

2010-07-17T03:21:00.001+02:00

The markets these days are over-run with berries, especially strawberries and blueberries. Singapore doesn't grow too many fruits and vegetables, leave alone berries; being a land scarce country, most of the food that is consumed here has to be imported.

Consequently, though the markets here have a wide variety food from all over the world throughout the year, some of it does cost quite a bit.

Take, for example, my favourite berries - blueberries. Most of the times, a small packet of blueberries weighing just 125 gms costs around $4.

So, sometimes, when they are available for around $2, it sounds like a real steal. That is when I go and buy several packets and hoard them - by freezing them.

To freeze blueberries (and any other berry), first wash them in water. Gently pat them dry with a kitchen towel. I also let the berries 'air dry' for about an hour. Then, transfer them onto a plate in a single layer - ensure that you don't overcrowd the berries - and then freeze them for 24 hrs in the freezer. (Freezing them in a single layer ensures 2 things - one, the berries get evenly frozen and two, they don't stick to one another).

Then transfer them into re-sealable bags; get as much air out of the bags as possible.

Berries frozen this way can be used for upto 3 months - I am not quite sure if they last longer, I am sure they do but mine got used up and so 3 months is the longest that I can vouch for.

This - the tips on how to freeze berries - is my entry to Jaya's Back to Basics event.

Pancakes don't feature very regularly on our breakfast menu, but are such a welcome change every once in a while. Having frozen blueberries on hand means that I can quickly whip up some blueberry pancakes.

The recipe here is the one I found on the Dairy Farmer's Buttermilk carton; I've tweaked it just a tad bit.

Ingredients:
(makes 8 pancakes)

Self raising flour - 3/4 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour - 3/4 cup
Salt - a pinch
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Caster sugar - 2 tbsps
Buttermilk - 1.5 cups
Egg - 1, lightly beaten
Lemon rind - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp + some more for greasing the pan

(Frozen) Blueberries - 1 cup

Method:

Sift together the flours, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Stir in the caster sugar. Then pour in the liquid ingredients - egg, buttermilk and oil - and beat well to get a smooth batter.

Add the blueberries and the lemon rind and stir to combine. Let the batter stand for 10 minutes.

Pour a couple of ladles of the pancake batter on a greased and heated non stick frying pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the top surface is dotted with bubbles. Flip over and cook for another 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Drizzle some maple syrup or honey over the pancakes and enjoy!

Asparagus, Mushroom and Green Peas Risotto

2010-07-09T17:51:00.002+02:00

Knowing a food critic is dining in the restaurant, 'everthing improves: the seating, the service, the size of the portions.' Therefore, the one thing a food critic really needs - in addition to a healthy appetite and a willingness to sample different foods - is anonymity.

As a seasoned restaurant critic, Ruth Reichl is very aware of this. But she also learns, much to her dismay, that even before she has occupied her desk as food critic for The New York Times, the restaurants in New York have been gathering all information on her. Reportedly, they even have her picture posted in the kitchen with cash rewards offered for adavance intimation of her visit.

Under such circumstances, how does she ensure that she gives her readers an objective and unbiased view of the restaurants she's eating in?

The book club pick for June, Garlic and Sapphires: The secret life of a food critic in disguise, tells just how Ruth Reichl manages to hoodwink the restaurateurs - with the help of one of her mother's friends, she disguises herself - thereby giving the masses an honest insight into what they could really expect from the total experience of dining out.

"You shouldn't be writing reviews for the people who dine in fancy restaurants, but for all the ones who wish they could."

In keeping with that line of thought, the disguises she dons are very representative of the ordinary diner: she starts off as Molly, a meek, former school teacher, then, she is Miriam, inspired by her own cantankerous and opinionated mother. There is also Chloe, a sexy, divorced blond, Betty, an old spinster who no one pays much attention to; her favourite is Brenda a warm -hearted and friendly red-head, and she is most horrified by the brusque and unkind Emily. The disguises are more than just outward appearances - each has a personality of her own and with every disguise she dons, she learns something about herself.

She eats in fancy schmancy restaurants and smaller, lesser known ones with equal enthusiasm and derives as much satisfaction nibbling on foie gras as she does slurping on soba noodles, much to the chagrin of some colleagues and readers.

The city was filled with people who did not think that Shanghai dumpling parlors, Korean barbeque places, and sushi bars merited serious consideration. They did not want these restaurants taking up the space that properly belonged to the French, Italian and Continental establishments they were accustomed to seeing reviewed in their Friday morning paper. But I was determined to give Asian, Indian and Latino restaurants the respect they deserved.

Garlic and Sapphires is an extremely entertaining and insightful read into the world of a restaurant critic. The one thing I particularly liked was that Reichl minces no words when she talks about the restaurants she reviewed, her colleagues or even herself. What makes the book particularly appealing is the way the stories about her various disguises are interspersed with actual restaurant reviews and some recipes. Now, if only she'd included pictures of herself in all those disguises!

With so much food on almost every page, coupled with some very interesting recipes, deciding what to make wasn't very easy. In the end, I zeroed in on the risotto simply because I hadn't made any in a long time!

Ingredients:

Arborio rice: 3/4 cup

Onion: 1 medium sized, finely chopped
Garlic: 1 clove, finely minced

Mushrooms: 10-12, chopped
Green Peas: 3/4 cup
Asparagus spears: 10-12

White wine: 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Mushroom stock: 2 - 3 cups
Olive oil: 2 tbsps
Butter: 1 tbsp
Parmesan cheese: 2 tbsps (optional)

Method:

Heat the oil and add the garlic and onions, cook till the onions turn pink. Add the mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes - I had some bacon bits that were fast approaching the expiry date and threw those in with the mushrooms.

Next, add the rice and stir till the grains are evenly coated with oil. Then, add the dry white wine and simmer over low heat until all the wine has been absorbed.

Now add the stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly till all the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock, 1/2 cup each time, allowing each addition to be completely absorbed before adding in the next.

When three quarters of the stock has been absorbed, stir in the asparagus and the green peas.

Add the remaining and cook another 7-10 minutes till the rice is completely cooked; once cooked, stir in the parmesan cheese and the butter, adjust the seasonings and serve.

Making the mushroom stock:

Very often, when I made risotto, I would use ready - made stock cubes. After all, risotto is something that I cook more as a 'on the spur of the moment' meal; often times, I'd have no patience to spend extra time in the kitchen to make the stock.

It all changed when I experimented and came up this way of making 'instant' noodles. It has been a hit at home and that gave me the confidence to also make and freeze some basic mushroom and vegetable stock. Not only is it convenient, it tastes way better than the readymade stock cubes.

To make the basic mushroom stock, slice about 12-15 large mushrooms, toss in one sliced onion and a chopped carrot. Add these to 2 lts of water. Season with salt, pepper and some fresh herbs ( I used rosemary and parsley) and bring to boil. Reduce to a low heat and simmer till the water has reduced to half.

I normally freeze my stock in ice trays and once set, transfer the ice cubes into re-sealable bags. I use these when when cooking pasta, for making risottos and for making soups and stews.

Frozen mushroom stock is my entry to Jaya's event, Back to Basics.

So, what do you call them?

2010-07-01T17:54:00.004+02:00

In a city I studied in, I would sit in a rather run-down restaurant with the boyfriend, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings. However, as soon as these were put on the table, the hands were hastily disentangled to grab these and sweet nothings gave way to shouts of 'repeat the order'.

In a city that gave me my first taste of financial independence, ever so often, I'd eat these at the railway station on my way back from work. The trains would come and go and with each passing minute, the crowds would swell. Each passing minute meant getting even a toehold in the train became increasingly difficult but even that concern didn't deter me from eating one.

In a city that I moved to soon after marriage, I stood on a street corner with my boss who was discussing the market, our targets and sales strategies. I was new to the bank and knew I had to respond with something intelligent but after one bite of these, the only intelligible thing I managed to say was "boy, these are so delicious!"

I knew them as kathi kebabs in Pune, frankies in Mumbai and egg rolls in Calcutta. In other parts of the world, they are also called shawarmas or burritos or tacos or doner kebabs or simply (sandwich) wraps.

No matter what you want to call them - I call them kathi kebabs - the basic premise is the same: a flat bread folded over some stuffing that has been drizzled over with some sauces/dressings.

'Out of sight, out of mind' best describes my relationship with them kathi kebabs. When they were easily available, I couldn't have enough of them. When they were not, I didn't seem to miss them at all.

However, when I saw these egg rolls on Sandeepa's blog early this year, the craving to eat some right away had me in its grip. Her post convinced me that I could make egg rolls at home. They seemed so easy to make and looked so inviting that I lost no time in making them!

In the pictures that follow, you'll notice that I've used (leftover) chapatis to make the kathi rolls - it is the only time I've taken pictures, so that is what you see here - but pay heed to Sandeepa's suggestion and use frozen parathas - I normally do - they make a world of difference to the final taste.

Before you make the kathi rolls, there's this little bit of pre-preparation that you need to do.

Pre-preparation:

1. Marinate 1 boneless chicken leg (cut it into bite sized cubes) in 3 tbsps of yogurt + 1.5 tsps of garlic paste + 1 tsp of ginger paste + 1 tsp of chaat masala + rock salt.

Heat oil in a pan, fry half a sliced onion till it turns pink, add the marinated chicken and saute on a high flame till the chicken is cooked. Alternatively, you can even grill the chicken in an oven at 200 deg C.

2. Make the onion salad - slice an onion, to it add some chopped green chillies, chopped coriander leaves, rock salt and sugar. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and mix well.

3. Make the chapatis (Indian flatbread) or parathas or any other flat bread you choose to use.

Once your pre-preparation is done, making the kathi kebab is really quite simple:

1. Whisk together 1 egg + 1 tbsps of milk + a pinch of salt. Heat oil in a pan, pour the whisked egg. When the egg starts to cook around the edges.....

2. Put the chapati on top. After a minute....

3. Flip it over. Cook for another minute and then take it off the pan.

4. Put in the stuffing:

First, line the onion salad in the centre. Top it with the chicken kebabs. Squirt some sriracha chilli sauce or any other sauce of your choice.

(Nowadays, I make kathi kebabs to use up leftover food - chicken/mutton curry works brilliantly in these. Simply de-bone the meat and add curry in place of the sauce. Leftover paneer jalfrezi also tastes fantastic).

5. Fold and wrap the rolls in paper (you will ignore my rather messy looking paper napkin, won't you?), top with some more onion salad (keep lots of breath freshners handy) and chomp away!

Kathi Kebabs, inspired by Sandeepa's egg rolls, are my entry to Nupur's Blog Bites 5: Sandwiches and Wraps.

Speaking of events, Sra is hosting our food fiction event , 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks: 3' . So, spin her a yarn that has food as its main star and send it over to her on srablog{at}gmail{dot}com

Spinach Macaroni Casserole

2010-06-22T17:52:00.001+02:00

My parents are visiting and I had thought that with them around, I'd have a lots to blog about. I had imagined that I'd cook a lot of interesting food for them, take pictures and for once, become a prolific blogger and have a new post ever so often!

However, as it has turned out, I don't seem to be very inclined towards blogging these days. In fact, ever since they have come, I don't seem to be very inclined towards doing anything. Other than lounging on the sofa and reading.

The kitchen, though, is abuzz with the sound and smells of cooking - mom and dad are the ones who are doing the cooking. Both are avid cooks and have a huge collection of recipes and they are only too eager to experiment in the kitchen.

My only contribution - other than deciding what is to be made and buying the ingredients for it - is shrieks of horror ( so much oil!), or murmurs of disapproval (not spicy enough!) or grunts of grudging admiration (the salt is just right - every single time) - and then I am back to lounging on the sofa doing... nothing!

On rare days, I manage to take the camera out, click a few pictures and finally update the blog!

This spinach and macaroni casserole is something that my dad started making as a way of using up leftover palak paneer. Over time, the recipe has evolved to this:

Ingredients:

Macaroni: 3/4 cup

Spinach - 2 cups, finely chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves, minced
Tomato - 2 nos, chopped
Paneer / Cottage cheese - 1/2 cup (if using paneer cubes, grate or crumble it)
Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
Bay leaf - 1
Black cardamom - 1

Oil

for the topping:

Parmesan/cheddar cheese - 4-5 tbsps
Tomato - 5 round slices, optional

for white sauce:

Plain flour - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1.5 tbsps
Low fat milk - 1 cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Mustard paste - 1 tsp

Method:

First make the white sauce:
Melt butter in a pan. To that, add the plain flour and stir briskly till the flour starts to change colour. Stirring continuously, add the milk in a thin stream. Keep stirring till the sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Add mustard paste, salt, pepper and a tbsp of grated cheese. Remove from fire and set aside.

Cook the pasta as per the package instructions. Drain and set aside for 5 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C.

Heat some oil in a pan. Add the bay leaf, black cardamom and the chopped garlic; let them sizzle for half a minute. Add in the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes get soft and mushy.

Then, put the chopped spinach and stir till the spinach starts looking wilted (don't cook the spinach at this stage). Add in the crumbed paneer and the salt and the crushed red chillies. Stir for a minute. Then add in the white sauce and the cooked pasta and mix well.

Transfer to a baking dish, top with the grated cheese and the tomato slices and bake till the cheese is browned and bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Sending this to Mansi who is hosting Presto Pasta Nights - 169, an event started by Ruth.

Fruit Chaat

2010-06-14T17:55:00.002+02:00

The woman walked into the huge waiting area, her movements tentative and uncertain, her eyes searching for that one familiar face in the multitude of strange ones in front of her, all the time wondering whether he would still be waiting. After all, she had been late - very late - in reaching. Suddenly she spotted him and her eyes lit up with joy.

"Just where have you been all this while? I've been waiting for so long," he said to her petulantly.

"Uff my dear.... we are meeting after such a long time. No 'hi' or 'hello'. Won't you even give me a hug?"

"I should have known better, I should've known that you would come later than you promised.....I've known you for so many years, but your habit of never coming on time hasn't changed. From the time we met, I've been the one waiting for you. You remember, don't you, how I used to wait for you outside your college, while you would take your own sweet time coming out?"

"Oh, why are you digging up the past?"

"That is because you've never understood how painful it is to keep waiting for someone."

"Oh please, don't imply that you used to suffer whilst you waited for me. I still remember you perched on your bike, puffing away to glory and chatting with the cigarette shop wallah and the chai wallah and the chaat wallah"

"Thanks to that waiting, I started smoking which ultimately led me......"

"Typically you - always thinking of the negative side of things. Thanks to the waiting, you learnt to make awesome chaats - the only food you ever managed to make for me," she teased. "But I must admit, I really have been craving your chaats . Everytime I missed you, I 'd make some. But none of the chaats I made tasted as good as yours. Least of all the fruit chaat. God alone knows what you put into it.....you never shared your culinary secrets with me," she complained.

"And I must repeat, there were no secrets. I just added a little extra bit of love. Plus, I always chose the fruits with care. The freshest possible, the best money could buy. After all, nothing but the best for you," he smiled.

"But my dear," he continued, "if you missed me so much, why didn't you come here sooner?"

"As if you don't know.....so many things happened after you went. Our twin grandchildren.... Varsha needed my help in raising them. I couldn't have just left her alone and come up here to be with you!"

"Yes, you are right. You couldn't have come any sooner," he concurred.

"Anyway, now we are together,"she said happily, linking her arm into his, "so stop complaining. But tell me something, you came here 2 years before me, so didn't they decide where to send you? I didn't expect to see you here at the reception. I was under the impression that I'd have to look for you."

"Sweetheart, how could I not have waited for you? How could I have wandered off anywhere," he said tenderly, "and left you searching for me? Be it here at the gates of Heaven - I hope they do send us to Heaven, not hell - or when we were on earth, when we were alive or after dying, you will always find me waiting for you. After all, people die but old habits...old habits die hard!"

A story about tardiness (and waiting) that is being sent to an event way past its deadline? Just what do you call that - cheeky or mere coincidence?

Thank you, Sandeepa, for accepting this very very late entry to the 2nd round of 'Of Chalks And Chopsticks'!

Much like the man in the story, the husband makes whips up a fantastic fruit chaat.

No big recipe here, just get the freshest of fruits of your choice. Chop them up in bite sized pieces, you need about 2 cups of chopped fruit. Toss them in a dressing of 1/4 cup orange juice + a tsp of sugar + 1/2 tsp of chaat masala + a pinch of black salt. Chill for about 30 minutes.

Garnish with some mint leaves and chopped nuts, if desired.

That is it. Enjoy!!

Fruit Chaat is also my entry to Priti's Festive Food: His Cooking Event

Eggless Butter Cookies

2010-06-10T14:33:00.002+02:00

Remember the time when we were kids and read stories that started with 'once upon a time' and ended with 'happily ever after'? Remember those stories where good always begot good, where magic and miracles happened?

If you miss the 'feel good' factor of those books or if you miss that world of enchantment or if you bemoan the fact that no one writes such stories for adults, then A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg is a novel you should waste no time and read.

Faced with a bleak prognosis from his doctor of his rapidly worsening emphysema, 52 year old Oswald T. Campbell has no option but to leave the harsh Chicago winter and head to some place warmer in order to prolong his life.

He lands in the southernmost part of Alabama - in picture perfect Lost River with its neat little bungalows, bushes of flowers in every yard and streets canopied by fat oak trees. A place where the weather is warm and sunny even in the peak of winter, where the community of just 80 people live in perfect harmony with each other.

Living amid the amiable people, in a temperate climate and eating delicious, hot meals served by his landlady, Oswald soon starts to feel a lot better. He goes on to build a fine camaraderie with the mailman Claude Underwood who delivers the community's mail (on a boat), the heart broken Roy who runs the only general store in the town and the widowed Frances who helped Oswald find his lodgings in Lost River.

But the one person he is especially close to is Patsy, an undernourished, crippled girl who lives with her foster family on the fringes of Lost River in a trailer park. The foster family habitually neglects her and Patsy spends most of her time at the store with Jack, the injured and therefore flightless redbird rescued by Roy.

Soon, the townspeople, including Oswald, find themselves involved in Patsy's well-being.....

The ending was a bit too far-fetched for my liking and the characters in a 'too good to be true' mould - I mean, imagine a town that doesn't even have people gossiping occasionally at street corners or when they meet in the general store!

In the hands of a lesser author, the story could have easily degenerated into something extremely maudlin and sentimental, but Fannie Flagg, with her inimitable style and wit, leaves the reader engrossed till the very last page.

So, if you can suspend disbelief and stow away cynicism, then this book will leave you with a smile on your face and a warm, fuzzy feeling. It will make you believe that sometimes, life does give you second chances.

But most importantly, it will create in you a longing to go and spend a few idyllic days in a place as beautiful as Lost River.

Just before I started reading the book, I had baked a batch of these eggless butter cookies - cookies that were made out of a recipe adapted from Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (and yes, I will confess, that was the book I originally intended to review and hence the cookies).

The aroma of the freshly baked cookies wafted through the house and I blissfully nibbled on the flaky, buttery and crumbly cookies as I flipped the pages of the book.

Eggless Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 1/2 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour: 1/2 cup
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1/8 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp

Sugar: 1/4 cup
Butter: 1/4 cup

Buttermilk: 4 tbsps

Vanilla essence: 1/4 tsp
Butter essence: 1/4 tsp

Method:

Sift all the dry ingredients twice.

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and creamy. Add both the essences to the butter-sugar mixture and beat a further 2 minutes. Then rub it into the dry ingredients till the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Add the buttermilk, a tbsp at a time, till you get a firm dough. I needed 3 tbps of buttermilk.
Chill for an hour in a plastic wrap.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out to desired shapes. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden. Cool completely before eating.

Our book club turned two years this month; Fannie Flagg was the author Simran picked to celebrate the second anniversary. The book club has its own blog now - This Book makes me Cook - hop on there to check what the other members read and were inspired to make. You could also leave a comment there if you want to read and cook with us.

Story Book Cake

2010-06-04T11:51:00.001+02:00

The one thing that I really look forward to doing for my daughter every single day is putting her to sleep at night. No, not just because when she finally sleeps, the house is quiet at last and I get some 'me' time but because reading to her at bedtime is a routine that I simply love and look forward to all day!

The husband and I both love to read and this love for books is something that we'd like our daughter to share as well. Trips to the library, trips to the book shop, reading to her whenever she wants to listen to a story and lately, ever since the written words have started making sense, encouraging her to read are all things we do as (m)any other parent to get her to love them books.

Imagine, therefore, my delight when she asked me to make her a storybook cake for her 5th birthday.

A google search led me here and I fell instantly in love with what I saw. Come D-day and I ran out of steam - or maybe had too much of it in the kitchen given the soaring temperatures in our neck of woods - and abandoned all plans of making the chariot and the wand and so the end result is different from the one I saw on Cake Central, but the birthday girl was thrilled with what she saw and that is all that mattered!

To make this cake, I put two 10" square cakes alongside each other and sliced off about 2.5" at an angle to get the book shape. The cake is covered with fondant icing . The flowers used are store-bought, my only contribution to the flower vine are the stalks and the leaves. I used gold dust powder mixed with a few drops of water to get the yellowing pages effect - this is the only bit that I was a tad unhappy about as I failed to get a uniform look - for whatever reason, the 'paint' didn't adhere to the fondant resulting in a patchy look.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions on what I should've done, please do leave me a comment.

This, I know, is a very sketchy post, but do check out these 2 posts - Decorating a birthday cake: step by step tutorial and Cake decoration with fondant icing: a step by step guide - to know more about cake decoration.

If you have any specific questions on making this cake, do drop me a line on aquadaze{@}rediffmail{dot}com

Kairi chi Dal/ Split Chickpeas with Raw Mangoes

2010-05-30T17:55:00.001+02:00

She looked around her and realised that there was no way out, that she would have to eat it, the plateful of kairi chi dal that they had been served. She stole a furtive glance to her left and saw Aamir shovelling spoonful after spoonful into his mouth, muttering ‘delicious’ and ‘yum’ ever so often. A quick glance to her right and other members of their entourage were doing the same.

Yes, she would have to eat it, else the tabloid journalist accompanying them would have a field day declaring how the heroine of the movie acted snooty and refused to touch a morsel. And moreover, she would hurt the feelings of the lady who had made it if she didn't eat.

Yet, she couldn’t get herself to eat even a single spoonful – she dreaded the torrent of emotions it would unleash - and so she toyed with her food, absently pushing it this way and that on her plate, as she took in her surroundings. It was a simple house that had homeliness written on every wall.

There was a time when she had known a house like this intimately, she thought.

Coming here to this house hadn’t quite been part of the plan, but then her co-star Aamir could be extremely eccentric sometimes.

They had been touring the country as part of publicity for their soon to be released movie; the promotional blitzkrieg had taken them to theatres and multiplexes, malls and restaurants in an attempt to connect with the audiences. But barging in unannounced into somebody’s house? That was something that happened on the spur of the moment.

They were waiting at a traffic light when Aamir saw this chawl at the corner of the street. “Let’s go visit some house in that chawl,” he said. “It would fit in wonderfully with the theme of the movie.”

The sycophants accompanying them had lauded the idea and that is how she found herself in this house; the paint peeling off its walls, a noisy fan spinning furiously, its attempt at offering some respite from the relentless summer heat almost futile.

There was a time when she had lived in a house just like this one, she recalled.

Their visit had created quite a stir, people from the neighbouring houses were thronging to see them and the ladies of the house had bent over backwards bringing out tea, coffee and snacks for them.

Her publicist gave her a subtle nudge. “You’ve not touched your plate and everyone is watching.”

Reluctantly, she ate a spoonful. It had the perfect balance of spicy, sour and sweet, with just the right crunch. A burst of freshness from the cilantro and grated coconut. Exactly the way she liked kairi chi dal.

Exactly the way her aayi used to make it, she remembered. Exactly the way it tasted the last time she had eaten it.

She could barely swallow that small spoonful. The lump in her throat made swallowing difficult.

“Did you like it? I helped my mother make it,” said a voice. Looking up, she saw a young girl, her long hair neatly braided into 2 pleats. She was apparently shy for she was clinging to her mother’s sari, her face virtually covered by the pallu.

She used to be like that little girl, shy and reticent and extremely attached to her mother. Her mother was the centre of her universe and vice versa, till that fateful day 6 years ago when her actions and decisions had changed it all:

“Aayi, there is something I need to talk to you about,” she began, tentatively.

“What is it Gauri? And grate the kairi quickly. If you want to take the kairi chi dal in your lunch box, you’d better work those hands,” her mother admonished, as she added the coarsely ground chana dal to the hot oil.

“Aayi, I don’t know how to tell you this, but some days back I had sent my pictures for the Miss India contest,” she said, “I got a letter today confirming my selection in the final 24 contestants. I have to go to Mumbai next week,” she concluded.

She knew her mother would be upset at this revelation and prepared herself for an angry outburst. But her mother turned up the flame of the gas and proceeded to vigorously stir the dal. When she finally reduced the flame and covered the vessel with a tight fitting lid, she turned to her and said, “ Turn off the gas after 5 minutes and stir in the grated raw mango. Top it off with the coriander and grated coconut. I am getting late for work, pack your own lunch box today.”

“But aayi, what about…”

Her mother had silenced her mid sentence. “There will be no further discussion on that matter. I want you to finish your medical studies. Two years and you will be a doctor! And,” she continued, “Should you pursue this stupid beauty pageant thing, I will cut all ties with you,” she said as she picked up her handbag and left for work.

Tears streaming down her eyes, Gauri packed her lunch box and gathered her books. She was torn between her dream and her mother’s ambition. She glanced at the watch. Her friend would come to pick her up in 10 minutes; the bus to Mumbai left in 25 minutes. She took a deep breath and made her decision. She threw in some clothes into a suitcase, wrote a brief note to her mother, used her lunchbox as a paper weight and walked out of her home.

She didn’t make it beyond the first round of the pageant but managed to catch the attention of a film producer. The rest, as they say, was history. Instead of Dr. Gauri, she had become megastar Gauri.

Another voice jolted her back to the present. “Yes, she is my little helper in the house,” laughed the girl’s mother. “She loves your movies and can mimic all your dance moves!" The mother’s eyes lit up with pride as she spoke about her daughter.

Seeing her, Gauri felt a pang. Yes, she had always missed her mother all these years, but today, her pain at being estranged from her mother was suddenly overwhelming her.

Would her mother be proud of her achievement, the heights she had reached, she wondered. What would she say to her when they met? And most importantly, how was her mother?

She could not bear it any longer, this separation from her mother. She just had to meet her mother and reconcile with her. Yes, she would go right away to her home, to her mother. She calculated the distance to her home town; from here, it would take her around 6 hours to reach by road. This meant that by the time she reached, it would be very late in the night.

But then, it was never too late to go back home, was it?

Sandeepa is hosting the 2nd edition of our food fiction event, 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks' and this is my entry for the event.

Have you sent in your entries to Sandeepa yet?

Kairi chi dal is a very popular evening snack in Maharashtra in the summer months and is something I absolutely love.

The final taste of this dal depends a lot on individual taste buds. I load mine with a lot of raw mango - I love mine tangy, my husband, on the other hand doesn't like it so sour.

You are looking for a balance between sweet, sour and spicy that tickles your taste buds, so use the quantities, especially of the raw mango, given here more as a guideline.

Once you've found the right balance of the three tastes, believe me, you are going to go into absolute raptures of delight.

Ingredients:

Chana dal: 1/4 cup, soaked overnight
Raw mango, grated: 1 (use lime juice as a substitute if you can't find raw mangoes)
Ginger: 1" piece
Green chillies: 3-4

Oil: 2 tbsps
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Asafoetida: 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp

Salt, to taste
Sugar: 1 1/2 tsp

for garnishing (essential):

Chopped coriander leaves: 3 tsps
Grated cocout: 2 tbsps

Method:

Soak the chana dal for at least 5 hours, preferably overight.

Drain the water and let the dal 'drip dry' for about 30 mins.

Grind alongwith the green chillies and ginger to a coarse powder.

Heat oil in a wok and pop in the mustard seeds. When they start to crackle, add in the asafoetida and the turmeric powder followed by the coarsely ground dal. Sprinkle the salt. Stir briskly for 2-3 minutes, then reduce the flame to the lowest possible - and cook covered for a further 2 minutes. When you uncover the lid, steam should rise up from the dal. Stir once more and turn off the gas.

Stir in the sugar and the grated raw mango - don't add in all the mango in one go - taste as you add some in - stop adding the raw mango once you reach your desired level of sweet, spicy and sour.

Garnish with grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves.

This is also my entry to MLLA - 23 that Susan herself is hosting this month.